Leveraging Ditches to Address Minimal Impact Design Standards (MIDS)

Summary:

Local agencies across Minnesota are responsible for managing stormwater runoff to minimize pollutants, prevent erosion, and comply with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Minimal Impact Design Standards (MIDS). These standards emphasize retaining and treating stormwater through practices that promote natural filtration and maintain adequate water storage capacity. In practice, many agencies default to constructing stormwater ponds to meet MIDS requirements. While effective, ponds are often costly, land-intensive, and disruptive to adjacent properties and natural resources, particularly in rural areas or constrained corridors. At the same time, Minnesota has an extensive network of roadside ditches that already function as linear stormwater conveyance systems. Increasingly, local agencies are interested in leveraging and modifying these existing ditch systems (e.g., widening or reshaping) as an alternative best management practice (BMP) to meet MIDS requirements.

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