The Environmental Information Management System (EIMS) is a system for providing timely and reliable information for environmental planning and decision-making for the Metropolitan Area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES), a division of the Metropolitan Council, developed the EIMS to provide access to lake, river, stream, and rain gauge data, analysis, and documents from various sources through a single, integrated system. The Metropolitan Council is the regional planning agency serving the Metropolitan Area and providing essential services to the region.
EIMS contains data and information grouped into the following broad topic categories based on geographic unit: Lakes, Rivers and Streams, Wastewater Treatment Plants, and Rain Gauges. Within each of these topics, the data are further broken down into data sets based primarily on the program that collects the data (e.g. Metropolitan Council monitoring programs, citizen-assisted monitoring program for lakes or watershed outlet monitoring program for streams).
Select the Basic Search if you are looking for data or information about one specific site or waterbody. Select the Advanced Search if you are looking for data from multiple waterbodies or sites. Both searches offer a map search and a textual search.
The Basic Search should be used to find data and information for one specific site or waterbody. The Advanced Search should be used to find data and information from multiple sites.
Most monitoring sites are located within the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan area. The interactive monitoring map displays all monitoring sites.
The data are available to download in several formats (comma separated, tab-separated, Microsoft Excel and JSON).
Interpreting the meaning of monitoring data can be difficult. Results may be influenced by sampling design, collection methods, and laboratory methods. In addition, consideration needs to be given to the type of environmental feature (lake, river, or stream), the time of year, and other site conditions (e.g. rain, ice conditions, etc.). The professional staff of Metropolitan Council Environmental Services produce periodic reports that summarize and interpret the data. These reports are available through the EIMS Documents page.
On the Documents page, enter all or a portion of a document title, waterbody name, waterbody type, city, county or parameter of interest in the search box and then select the Search button. Documents are also available on the site detail pages. Select the document title to download it.
The EIMS database system is updated daily with monitoring data and periodically with interpretive reports.
The MCES lake monitoring data can be found in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) database system as well as in EIMS. Click here to go to the MPCA's Surface Water Data site
Other agencies collect and publish water data and information. See the Key Water Information Catalog for more information.
MCES Contacts:
Lake Monitoring: Brian Johnson at 651.602.8743 or via email at Brian.Johnson@metc.state.mn.us
River Monitoring: Jack Barland 651.602.8341 or via email John.Barland@metc.state.mn.us
Stream Monitoring:
Scott Haire 651.602.8747 or via email Scott.Haire@metc.state.mn.us
Bevens Creek, Bluff Creek, Carver Creek, Credit River, Nine Mile Creek and Sand Creek.
Cassie Champion 651.602.8745 or via email Casandra.Champion@metc.state.mn.us
Battle Creek, Beltline Interceptor, Browns Creek, South Fork of the Crow River, Fish Creek, Rum River, Silver Creek, Vermillion River, Bassett Creek, Cannon River, Crow River, Eagle Creek, Purgatory Creek, Riley Creek, and Valley Creek.
EIMS Website: Jen Keville at 651.602.1765 or via email at jennifer.keville@metc.state.mn.us
EIMS is best accessed using Internet Explorer Versions 10 or 11, Safari Version 8, or 2016 versions of Google Chrome or Firefox.