​Chicago, really?  Is Chicago in the Mississippi River Watershed?  Yes, at least in part.  As a member of LWV Deerfield/Lincolnshire told me, the people of Chicago who get their drinking water from and rely on Lake Michigan in so many ways are also in the Mississippi River watershed because of the reversal of the Chicago River... drinking water comes from Lake Michigan and treated wastewater travels west to the Mississippi.   Other rivers in Chicagoland, like the Des Plaines or Fox watersheds also flow to the Mississippi.  Many Leagues in the Chicago area are  members of both LWV Upper Mississippi River Region and LWV Lake Michigan Region.  To these Leagues, we apologize for what I'm about to say... 

The LWV Upper Mississippi River Region and LWV Lake Michigan Region are working together to sponsor an LWV water forum on June 27, the day before"the LWV US convention begins.  This event, to be held at the Standard Club, is "Water: Advocating for Protection - Put your League on the Map!" .  Click this link and learn more about this event, and register.  And since we were all going to be together in the place where our watersheds overlap, we thought it would be a great time to have our Annual Meetings.  And, as the schedules worked out, the two Annual Meetings will be held at the same time - 11:30 to 1:30 on June 27, with a buffet lunch.  

Register for the event here.  LWV UMRR member Leagues will be eligible for a $15 rebate per League at the door - our way to help defray costs.  An email with more information will be sent to member Leagues - watch for it!  

​The people of Wisconsin are concerned about what’s happening to their water.  This concern was shown Monday night in Stevens Point, where more than 90 people packed the Pinery Room at the Portage County Library to hear Dr. George Kraft talk about the science and policy debate around high capacity wells – read more about this event here.  Dr. Kraft’s presentation was captured in an informal video on Facebook live, visit the LWV UMRR Facebook page and look under”Videos”.  

​Dr. Kraft is Professor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.  His work has focused on groundwater resource sustainability, particularly about profitable agriculture and water impacts, and is involved in work to modernize Wisconsin’s groundwater pumping management policy and laws.  Wisconsin’s Central Sands region is where Dr. Kraft has spent much of his career, and was the focus of his remarks Monday night. 
 
 In his talk, Dr. Kraft first talked about groundwater hydrology; explaining the connection between ground- and surface waters.  When groundwater levels drop, whether from lack of recharge in dry times or from pumping from wells, surface water resources are also affected.  (If the water table drops eight feet, for example, spring-fed streams that intersect the water table will also go down to the same elevation as the water table.  The actual amount of drop in surface water levels depends on their normal water level elevation.)  Shallower streams like minor tributaries are often dried up, and deeper water bodies will drop in water level.  When the amount of cold groundwater entering a stream diminishes, the water warms.  Warmer streams longer support trout and other cold-water species, meaning that groundwater depletion leads to ecological change as well.  

Dr. Kraft talked about the continued expansion of farm irrigation in Wisconsin’s Central Sands.  The number of high-capacity irrigation wells in this area has grown significantly, and resultant drops in the water table level have been recorded. 

​What is the effect of this?  Dr. Kraft showed pictures of lakes and streams where water levels have dropped, which is especially dramatic in dry years.  This isn’t just happening in Wisconsin – Minnesota has similar geologic terrains and similar problems.  Dr. Kraft talked about the approach that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is taking in the Straight River Groundwater Management Area- read about that here.  A second project in Minnesota relating to water use and depletion was reported on in this blog earlier – the Little Rock Creek study. 
 
So, will the irrigation wells run out of water, too?  Dr. Kraft said that there’s probably plenty of water for irrigation wells for years to come.  Central Wisconsin is a water-rich area, receiving more than 30 inches of rain a year.  Groundwater is recharged by the rain, and the aquifers here are deep.  The groundwater resource will sustain heavy pumping for the foreseeable future, but the impacts on surface water will continue.  It is up to the people of Wisconsin to balance theses competing values.  

​While Dr. Kraft’s talk focused on water quantity, water quality is also an issue in central Wisconsin.  Both are addressed by the Center for Watershed Science and Management at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.  Dr. Paul McGinley is the Director of this Center, Dr. Kraft is an emeritus member and Kevin Masarik, a doctoral student at UW Madison, is also part of the team.  Another hydrologist will soon be hired to round out the team.  Support for the Center’s staff comes primarily from UW Extension, so outreach to citizens, lake associations and others is a major part of their work. 
 
Nitrate contamination is a real problem in Wisconsin, affecting more than 25% of all private wells.  Here’s a video presentation where Kevin Masarik explains what nitrate is and explores the effects of nitrate on the environment, drinking water and groundwater.  In this video, Masarik discusses data found in Wisconsin’s Well Water Viewer, which can be found at this link. 
 
Wisconsin’s groundwater has been the subject of other posts on this blog.  See “Protecting Wisconsin Well Owners and Providing Safe Water” at  https://www.lwvumrr.org/blog/protecting-wisconsin-well-owners-and-providing-safe-water  and “When it Hits the Fan – Groundwater Quality and Public Health” at https://www.lwvumrr.org/blog/when-it-hits-the-fan-groundwater-quality-and-public-health .

On Thursday, March 8, League of Women Voters of Brainerd (Minnesota) hosted Anna Bosch of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in a discussion of water quality on the Upper Mississippi.  (The Mississippi River headwaters are in northern Minnesota and the river travels nearly a third of its length inside Minnesota.  When Minnesotans talk about the “Upper Mississippi”, they mean the stretch of the river that flows from the Headwaters to just north of the Twin Cities.)  Anna talked about work the MPCA is doing to identify water quality problems and threats in the Upper Mississippi, and to work with local governments to protect and improve water quality.  Click here for the document that Anna used as the basis for her talk.  

In a previous blog post, we discussed problems with groundwater depletion, stream warming and stream flow loss as well as increasing levels of nitrate in both surface and groundwater.  When Anna spoke, she pointed out similar issues in the Crow Wing River Watershed.  Here, lands that had been in tree plantations are being cleared and replaced by crops, primarily irrigated potatoes.  This conversion removes protection for the river.  Cultivating the land can increase sedimentation; fertilizers used on the crops can increase nitrate in surface and groundwater, and irrigation lowers groundwater levels which impacts the flow of groundwater into the river.  This combination of changes has significant impacts on the river, and those downstream who rely on it for drinking water.  According to MPCA, “for every 10% decrease in forest cover … the cost of water treatment for downstream communities increases by 20%.” 

The Upper Upper Mississippi is a river with excellent water quality in the river and most of the lakes in its watershed.  It flows through the land of cabins and resorts; recreational fishing and water recreation in winter and summer is a major industry.  Land uses here are changing which will result in changes in this river.  Numerous challenges face Minnesotans as they balance growth and development with recreational uses and drinking water needs.                                                                                                 

​Did you know that lakes and streams dry up when groundwater levels fall? It's all a system, you know, and each supports the other.  The LWV Upper Mississippi River Region April Board and educational meeting will be held in Stevens Point, WI, on April 2.  LWV Stevens Point Area has set up Dr. George Kraft to talk about groundwater-surface water interactions, and what that means for both resources when people mess around with the system.  This event in Stevens Point will help us understand how this works, and what it means in terms of policy options and decisions.    ​

UMRR's Board meets at locations around the watershed on the first Monday of each even-numbered month.  We partner with local Leagues to co-host an educational event with each meeting.

In October, we met at the Mississippi Headwaters in northern Minnesota, and had a speaker from the Minnesota Department of Health talk about nitrate in drinking water.  December's meeting was in Dubuque, and a speaker from the Great River Museum joined us.  

April 2 the Board will be meeting in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  The Board meeting will be in the afternoon at the Portage County Library.  Our agenda will be posted on this website, and all are welcome.  But the big show will be in the evening - Dr. George Kraft, UW Professor Emeritus, will talk about the science and policy implications of heavy groundwater use.  This meeting is free and open to the public.   Join us! 

Many thanks to LWV Stevens Point for their work in setting this up!   

Algae stinks.  It clogs up waterways and secretes toxins that are dangerous to humans and our pets.  It’s also a vital part of ecosystems, a necessary base of the food chain.   When nutrient pollution, particularly phosphorus, increases in a water body, excessive algae growth occurs, which results in stinky, dangerous problems. 
 
Algae blooms form dense mats on lakes, rivers and streams, affecting drinking water sources and water recreation.  An 2014 algae bloom in Toledo, Ohio, (shown above) shut down their water supply, leaving the city of more than 400,000 people without water for several days.  Circle of Blue, a website devoted to water issues, provides background information on toxic algae blooms.  We wrote about that in this blog post in January 2017.

Rivers and streams in Wisconsin are affected, too.  At the LWV UMRR Annual Meeting in May, 2017, Kim Wright from Midwest Environmental Advocates talked about excessive algae that chokes the Red Cedar River in Menomonie –read about what she said and see the video of Kim’s presentation here.
 
Thanks to the 2007 and 2016  “Pontoons and Politics” efforts of the Petenwell and Castle Rock Stewards  an advocacy group in central Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Legislature appropriated funds for the Department of Natural Resources to develop a plan to address nutrient pollution, and the resulting algae blooms, on the river.   This article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides more information on this work, as well as a video on the dangers of blue green algae.
 
This plan is now open for public comment.  It calls for a significant reduction of phosphorus to the Wisconsin River, to be achieved over time.  The DNR website for this project provides copies of the plan and information on how to comment.  This work is mandated by Clean Water Act provisions requiring states to list water bodies whose use is impaired by pollution, detail its sources and suggest limits on future pollution.

On January 20, 2018, people gathered in Boscobel, Wisconsin to talk and learn about the unique geology of the Driftless area,* and how this fragility requires extra protection.  The main focus of this session was the advent of large animal feeding operations in the Driftless area and what these can mean to water resources.   The sessions at this workshop were video'ed by Daniel Folkman, who has made them available to the public on his YouTube feed.  Thanks, Daniel, for your work!

Blog editor's note:  This workshop was aimed at opposing the expansion of large animal agriculture in the Driftless area.  The talks are not balanced by other viewpoints, and do not necessarily represent the views of LWV Upper Mississippi River Region.  We present this here to share this information with our audience.  The purpose of LWV Upper Mississippi River Region is to protect and enhance water quality in the Mississippi River, it's tributaries and groundwater in the watershed.  We believe that ALL activities in the watershed should be protective of this precious resource.  

*The Driftless area is found where Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois intersect.  Here, deep valleys and steep slopes make the landscape dramatically different from other Midwestern vistas.  This area was not covered by glaciers like the rest of the region, so the soil is much more shallow and bedrock is exposed in many areas.  Water resources are abundant here, both surface and groundwater, but the shallow soil means that there is little protection for the water from land surface activities.  The Mississippi River is the heart of this region, flowing from north to south.  This Wikipedia reference provides a more detail on this region.