County water report

Dakota County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Dakota County, Minnesota.

Water grade

Water score

66.2

State rank

#52

of 87

Health violations

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

0.0%

1 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

282

67,449 recent measurements

Live streamflow

98%

MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW L&D 2 AT HASTINGS, MN

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Dakota County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

Score: 66.2 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

0% impaired

1 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

98% of mean

MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW L&D 2 AT HASTINGS, MN

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

282

67,449 recent readings

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

66.2/100

Health violations

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

2.9

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Data center water stress

Dakota County has 6 facilities in the DCWSI dataset.

ByCounty's DCWSI ranks this county #68 nationally by combining its water score with mapped data center density.

DCWSI

70.1

0-100 index

Facility count

76.0 density percentile

Discharge estimate

Not reported

EPA CWA fields where available

Water vs median

+16.2

Compared with US county median

Named operators

Data Center Water Budget Calculator

Estimate daily water use for a hypothetical facility in Dakota County.

Facility size: 100 MW

1 MW1,000 MW

Cooling type

Utilization: 70%

40%100%

799K gallons/dayModerate Impact

Your facility would use 7.8% of this county's industrial water baseline — manageable but worth monitoring against drought trends.

7.8% of county industrial baseline9.47 Mgal/day remaining headroom

Based on USGS 2020 water-use data and EPA-standard cooling intensity constants. Not a substitute for site-specific water rights analysis.

Editorial analysis

Understanding Dakota County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Dakota County earns a B grade for drinking water quality, scoring 66.2 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 11 health-based violations — a pattern that public water utilities are required to disclose and correct.

Watershed Conditions

EPA ATTAINS

Under the Clean Water Act §303(d), EPA ATTAINS tracks whether waterways meet quality standards for drinking, recreation, and aquatic life (reporting cycle: 2022). None of the assessed waterways are listed as impaired (0 of 1 water bodies) across Dakota County's watersheds. Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

River & Streamflow Status

USGS NWIS

USGS NWIS gauge data (as of 2026-05-14T14:00:00.000-05:00) puts MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW L&D 2 at 18.9k cfs — near its historical average at 98% of mean flow. Streamflow is a leading indicator of drought stress, sediment load, and dilution capacity: low flows concentrate pollutants and warm water temperatures, stressing aquatic life and, in surface-water-dependent systems, the source water quality for treatment plants.

Monitoring Network

EPA WQP

EPA's Water Quality Portal (WQP) aggregates monitoring data from federal, state, and tribal agencies. Dakota County has extensive coverage with 282 active monitoring sites with 67,449 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include physical and organics, pesticide. More monitoring sites generally indicate greater scientific attention to local water conditions — and provide the baseline data that regulators use to set future impairment listings.

Editorial advisory

What the data suggests for Dakota County

Water Verdict

Dakota County, Minnesota receives a fair water quality assessment with a grade of B and a score of 66.2 out of 100. The water supply meets baseline federal standards, but there may be periods of elevated contaminant levels or infrastructure concerns worth monitoring. Separately, EPA ATTAINS assessments track 1 water body in the county's watershed, none of which are currently listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act. At the most recent USGS reading, local streamflow was tracking near its historical mean (97.8%).

Violation Context

EPA SDWIS records for Dakota County, Minnesota show 11 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 2.9 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is relatively low compared to many U.S. counties. This compliance record sits alongside an unusually deep monitoring archive: 67,449 water-quality results have been logged across the county in the EPA Water Quality Portal over the past five years.

Consumer Guidance

Tap water in Dakota County meets baseline safety standards, though the compliance record shows some violations worth watching. Dakota County's drinking-water compliance score is 66.2 out of 100. The violation rate for Dakota County is 2.9 per 100,000 people served. Running tap water for 30 seconds before drinking can reduce any localized lead exposure from household plumbing. Requesting your utility's most recent Consumer Confidence Report is the fastest way to identify which specific contaminants were flagged. With 282 active water-quality monitoring sites in Dakota County, data coverage is strong. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW L&D 2 gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Dakota County has water quality close to the average county in Minnesota. Its water score is within 1 points of the state average, meaning its overall water system performance is broadly representative of Minnesota as a whole.

Advisory text summarizes county-level public records and is not a replacement for your utility's current Consumer Confidence Report or direct local notices.

Contaminants & Resources

Key issues flagged in Dakota County's water environment

Official EPA Resources for Dakota County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Dakota County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Dakota County

Consumer Confidence Reports (MN)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in Minnesota

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

0.0%

0 of 1 assessed

Mostly healthy

Top Impairment Causes

No specific impairment causes reported for the assessed water bodies in this county.

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Impairment is determined under the Clean Water Act §303(d): a water body is impaired when it fails to meet state-defined quality standards for designated uses (drinking, recreation, aquatic life). Assessment coverage varies by state; counties without assessed water bodies are not shown.

Past 5 years

Water Quality Monitoring

Monitoring Sites

282

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

67K

67,449 total readings

Most Measured

Physical
Organics, Pesticide
Nutrient

Categories measured most frequently

Data from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), aggregating monitoring records from federal, state, and tribal sources. Each measurement represents a single sample analyzed for a specific characteristic (e.g., E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen).

Live USGS Streamgage

River & Stream Conditions

Current Discharge

18.9Kcfs

May 14, 7:00 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

98%

Near typical

Primary Streamgage

MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW L&D 2 AT HASTINGS, MN

USGS site: 05331580
Drainage area: 37,100 sq mi
Long-term mean: 19.3K cfs

One representative streamgage (the one with the largest drainage area in the county). Many counties have multiple gauges; this view summarizes the primary one. The long-term mean is the full-record annual average; the percent-of-typical value compares the latest reading against that average.

Free tool

Estimate Your Water Costs

Water Cost Estimate

Household size

3 people · ~225 gal/day

Filter type

Annual Total

$558

Monthly

$47

Water Bill

$558/yr

Filter Cost

$0/yr

Safety Grade for Dakota County:C — Moderate

Some violations or watershed impairment detected.

Estimates use the national average residential water rate ($0.0068/gal, EPA/AWWA 2023) and EPA WaterSense per-person consumption baseline (75 gal/person/day). Actual bills vary by utility, usage tier, and local infrastructure fees. For informational purposes only.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the water quality in Dakota County, Minnesota?

Dakota County, Minnesota has a drinking-water quality grade of B with a score of 66.2/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 11 health-based drinking water violations over the past 5 years. Watershed health, monitoring records, and streamflow snapshots are reported separately on this page.

Are there any water violations in Dakota County?

Dakota County has 11 health-based drinking water violations recorded by the EPA over the past 5 years. Health-based violations indicate instances where contaminant levels exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Violations may have been resolved — check with your local water utility for current status.

How healthy are the watersheds in Dakota County?

EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 0.0% of Dakota County's 1 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (0 impaired). Impairment means the water body fails to meet state quality standards for at least one designated use — drinking water source, recreation, aquatic life, or fish consumption. Note: watershed impairment doesn't always translate to tap-water issues; treatment plants can remove most regulated contaminants.

How much water-quality monitoring happens in Dakota County?

EPA's Water Quality Portal records 67,449 measurements from 282 monitoring sites in Dakota County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Physical, Organics, Pesticide, Nutrient. Each measurement is a single sample analyzed for one characteristic (E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc.). High monitoring density means more scientific evidence behind any reported signal — it does not by itself indicate water quality.

What's happening with rivers in Dakota County right now?

Dakota County's primary USGS streamgage on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER BELOW L&D 2 has a pipeline snapshot of 18,900 cubic feet per second — 98% of the long-term mean of 19,318 cfs. Flow is within typical range for this gauge. For the latest gauge feed, visit waterdata.usgs.gov.

How does Dakota County water compare to the Minnesota average?

Dakota County's SDWIS water quality score of 66.2/100 is lower than the Minnesota state average of 67.2. The average water quality grade across Minnesota is C, based on data from 87 counties with available SDWIS data.

Is tap water safe to drink in Dakota County?

Based on EPA SDWIS data, Dakota County has a water quality grade of B (66.2/100). This indicates good to excellent water quality with strong SDWIS compliance. The grade speaks to the public water system, not the watershed — for watershed-level concerns, see the Watershed Health zone. For the most up-to-date information, contact your local water utility or review your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).

Why does Dakota County have so many water violations?

Dakota County has 11 health-based drinking water violations on record from the EPA SDWIS database. A higher violation count can result from aging infrastructure, underfunded water utilities, agricultural runoff contamination, or industrial pollution. Counties with more water systems may also see more violations simply due to scale. Residents concerned about water quality should consider independent water testing and home filtration systems.

How does Dakota County rank for water quality in Minnesota?

Dakota County ranks #52 out of 87 counties in Minnesota by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 66.2/100, it falls in the middle third of counties statewide. The ranking reflects EPA SDWIS compliance only — not watershed impairment, monitoring density, or streamflow, which are tracked separately on this page.

Counties with Similar Water Quality

Crow Wing County

Minnesota

65.3

Water score

Rice County

Minnesota

64.8

Water score

Wright County

Minnesota

68.2

Water score

Data Sources

Drinking-water compliance data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) via the ECHO enforcement database. Scores reflect compliance history and health-based violation counts.

Watershed health and impaired-waterway data from the EPA ATTAINS Clean Water Act §303(d) assessments, state-reported and EPA-finalized.

Water-quality monitoring counts from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), federated USGS, EPA, and state agency sampling records over a rolling 5-year window.

Live streamflow from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), continuous discharge measurements from the largest-drainage gauge in each county, compared against the full-record long-term annual mean.

Disclaimer: This data is informational only. It is not health, legal, or professional advice. For concerns about your specific water supply, contact your local water utility.

By Evan Brooks, Data EditorUpdated May 14, 2026Reviewed by Evan Brooks, Data Editor

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