The Mississippi River near Anoka is the stretch of the river that enters into seven county metropolitan area. It travels along the border of Anoka and Hennepin Counties. Several tributaries enter into this section of the river, including Rum and Crow Rivers. This stretch of the Mississippi River is the start of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Additionally, the Mississippi River from St. Cloud to Anoka is part of Minnesota's Wild and Scenic Rivers Program. There are also several parks, including Mississippi West Regional Park and Peninsula Point Two Rivers Historical Park.The Mississippi River at Anoka, River Mile 871.6 is one of the main monitoring stations of the Council's Large Rivers Conventional Monitoring Project. It measures the water quality of the Mississippi River than enters into the seven county metropolitan area, before is flows through downstream developed areas and past several wastewater treatment facilities.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.