·         Minnesota water agency finds 73 percent of nitrate pollution in Minnesota River basin comes from agricultural land, 9 percent from municipal wastewater treatment systems, 2 percent from septic systems, and 1 percent from urban runoff.

·         University of Minnesota finds for an eight mile stretch of the Mississippi River that runoff from household lawn fertilizers in urban areas was the major source of nitrogen pollution.

·         Pet waste produces an equally bad result as livestock waste for urban watersheds, and this may be an issue for rural runoff as well.  

·         University of Minnesota finds that 76 percent of the phosphorus that goes into city lakes and the Mississippi River in the urban watershed came from pet waste.

·         Research shows about 60 percent of overall nitrogen in the Mississippi that creates the Dead Zone can be attributed to farmland runoff.  

·         Minnesota farmer says, “Our governor has been a little too quick to throw stones at farmers and that’s made farmers want to throw stones back.”