Protecting Water Quality in Urban Areas: Best Management Practices for Dealing with Storm Water Runoff from Urban, Suburban, and Developing Areas of Minnesota
Protecting Water Quality in Urban Areas (also referred to as the Blue Book) is a manual of stormwater best management practices. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency originally developed this manual to help local government officials, urban planners, developers, contractors and citizens prevent stormwater-related pollution. It was published in 2000 and has not undergone revision. Much of the information in this document is now outdated and we recommend it not be used for regulatory purposes.
Updated information on many of these topics can be found in the Minnesota Stormwater Manual wiki, in particular chapter 6: Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control. If you reference the Stormwater best management practices manual, particularly in ordinances, we recommend updating the references. Please contact us if you have questions.
Links to pdfs of sections from this manual are provided below. Some recommended links in the Minnesota Stormwater Manual wiki are shown below.
- File:Introduction pages.pdf
- File:Chapter 1 Water quantity and quality.pdf
- File:Chapter 2 Best Management Practices.pdf
- File:Chapter 3 Policies and Plans.pdf
- File:Chapter 4 BMPs for Stormwater Systems.pdf
- File:Chapter 5 Stormwater Ponds.pdf
- File:Chapter 6 Erosion and Sediment Control.pdf
- File:Chapter 7 Pollution Prevention.pdf
- File:Chapter 8 Models and Modeling.pdf
- File:Appendices.pdf
Suggested pages in the Minnesota Stormwater Manual wiki
- Water quantity and quality
- Best Management Practices
- Policies and Plans
- BMPs for Stormwater Systems
- Stormwater Ponds
- Erosion and Sediment Control
- Pollution Prevention
- Models and Modeling