The Mississippi River near South St. Paul is the area just downstream of where the Metro Wastewater Treatment Facility effluent channel enters into the river. This section of the river is part of the USACE's 9-Foot Channel Navigation Project and lies in Navigation Pool 2. It also lies in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Battle Creek Regional Park lies next to the river at this location, as does Pigs Eye Lake, which is an important riverine wetland for migrating birds. Most monitoring in this section of the river has been for special studies.The Mississippi River is one of the world's largest rivers, flowing over 2,300 miles through the center of the United States. It begins at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and ends at the Gulf of Mexico, where pollutants carried by the river contribute to the Gulf's Dead Zone. Millions of people rely on the Mississippi River as a source of drinking water, and the river is also an important waterway for shipment of commodities. The Mississippi River watershed is the 4th largest in the world at about 1.2 million square miles. The section of the watershed in and upstream of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area has a mix of several types of land including forests, wetlands, agriculture, and developed areas.