Elbow Lake STP - Grant County, Minnesota Wastewater Treatment Plant

Elbow Lake STP is a municipal wastewater treatment plant located in Grant County, Minnesota, United States. The facility serves a population of 1,156 and operates under secondary treatment standards, which is the minimum required by the US Clean Water Act for municipal plants of this scale. The plant has a designed capacity of 787.36 million gallons per year and an actual discharge volume of 787.37 million gallons per year, indicating near-full utilization. As a secondary treatment plant, it uses biological processes to remove organic matter and suspended solids before discharge. The treated effluent is released into local surface waters within the Minnesota River Basin, which ultimately drains into the Mississippi River and then the Gulf of Mexico. The plant plays a key role in protecting downstream water quality in this agriculturally intensive region.

Elbow Lake STP discharges into the Minnesota River Basin, a tributary of the Mississippi River that flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The region is dominated by agricultural land use, making nutrient removal critical to prevent downstream eutrophication and hypoxia in the Gulf. The plant's secondary treatment helps reduce organic pollutants but may not fully address nutrient loads, a common challenge for plants in this watershed.