 Clean Water for All (CWfA) is a national non-profit organization started in 2016 to meet the need for a single, comprehensive coalition that advocates for national clean water protections, which in turn benefit watersheds across the country. LWV UMRR participates in CWfA in two ways - as a member of the Mississippi River Network, which is in turn a member of CWfA, and through the individual participation of LWV UMRR Secretary Tamara Prenosil. CWfA is a national network that brings together organizations to build and utilize collective power to advance equitable policies that increase access, affordability, and strong protections of clean water across the nation. They envision every community having safe and affordable clean water that supports thriving communities, healthy ecosystems, cultural resources, and wildlife. Their work focuses in three issue areas: federal policy, infrastructure and agricultural pollution. Equity and Climate are integral to all three areas.
 
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The LWV UMRR blog is going to focus on groundwater for the next few months. This month we have two posts on the transfer of groundwater from state to state and country to country through bottled beverages and agricultural products. In "Exporting Water from the Mississippi - one 0.5liter Bottle at a Time", we take a look at the efforts of Niagara Bottling to site water bottling facilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This California company is seeking to expand in areas where cities will use their water supplies to encourage economic growth - the catch is that municipal water supplies are rated a higher priority than industrial uses, so an industrial use of municipal water takes advantage of a loophole in the system. The second post, "Groundwater is moving across the world in products" looks at the use of Arizona groundwater to raise alfalfa for dairy herds in Saudi Arabia. Arizona passed an act requiring the big cities to manage groundwater sustainably, but that law does not apply outside these major population centers... another loophole being exploited to access water. Minnesota also passed a Ground Water Protection Act, back in 1989. The Minnesota Ground Water Association charged a team with developing a white paper that looks at implementation of the Act in the past 30 years, and then looks ahead to what more needs to be done. (You can view a video on this Act and White Paper at this link.) One issue that stands out through all of these is the movement of water from one state, or one country, to another. Without clear policies to govern sharing (and not sharing) of water, there will be piecemeal protections and continuing over-withdrawals.
There's a whole more ways that water moves in products. Bottled beverages, dairy products, agricultural products and much more. In November, CNN posted an article on how groundwater in Arizona (yes, super-dry Arizona) is being used to grow alfalfa that is shipped to Saudi Arabia (where the use of groundwater for agricultural products has been prohibited) to feed cattle for Saudi dairy products.
Dropping groundwater levels are not just a problem of water supply for residents; cities are impacted, too, threatening the water supply of thousands. And when aquifers drop, the ground surface compacts, resulting in land subsidence. And changes in land use have resulted in other problems; the CNN article documents floods of silt that have impacted local homes due to changes in runoff patterns.
Arizona passed a law back in 1980, the Arizona Groundwater Protection Act, that established "Active Management Areas" around Phoenix, Tucson and other high-growth areas, but does not address agricultural use of groundwater. (This article on the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association blog describe the Act and provides background on why it was passed.) Foreign interests are exploiting the lack of protection for the resource and are 'mining' the resource to move groundwater, as products, from this very thirsty region.
We should take time to think about this... it's easier to feel outrage about Arizona water feeding Saudi cows than it is about Midwestern schoolkids eating Arizona citrus. But we are all part of the problem... and we all need to be part of developing and implementing smart laws and effective protection measures to protect our water resources.
There's a lot of water in Minnesota. With extensive resources of both groundwater and surface water, this is becoming a draw for water-intensive industries. The current proposal that's in the news is a water bottling plant that is proposing to use municipal water from the City of Elko New Market (locals call it ENM). The company proposing the plant is California-based Niagara Bottling.
This plant would be located in a newly-approved industrial park being built along Interstate 35 in Scott County, on the south edge of the Twin Cities Metro area. The City of ENM draws it's water from wells finished in the Jordan Aquifer, a major water supply aquifer for many other cities in the area. Springs from this aquifer form the headwaters of the near-by Vermillion River, a tributary to the Mississippi. Residents have raised concerns about the project, citing noise, traffic and well interference. They are fighting the project through social media, demonstrations and advocacy in various ways. This blog post will focus on the issues of water use increase and water export, not the other local issues of concern. The City of ENM held a public meeting on the project - there were so many testifiers at the meeting that it was held over from December 15 to December 20. This story on KARE11 provides a good update on this process. Here's the link to view the recorded City Council meetings that include these hearings. Water appropriations in Minnesota are regulated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources,this page on the DNR website provides statutory reference and information on how it works. In this case, expansion of the amount allowed to be withdrawn from the Jordan by the City of ENM requires modification of the city's appropriation permit. DNR staff has confirmed that DNR has received a permit amendment request from the City, and advised the City that they must first update their Water Supply Plan if they want to increase water usage related to a bottling plant. This plan will identify what measures will be implemented in case of a water crisis in order to maintain aquifer levels, and reduce potential well interference and water use conflicts. Once the Water Supply Plan is updated, DNR and the Metropolitan Council (a coordinative body of government responsible for planning in the Twin Cities) will evaluate the plan for sustainability and environmental impacts. If the proposed project does not meet state sustainability standards, DNR will not authorize the increase in water appropriation. Conversely, if the proposal meets the standards, the expansion of the city's appropriation permit will be allowed. The author of this post has requested more information on what standards DNR will specifically apply, but no answer was received as of noon on December 19. The concerned citizens in ENM also have filed a request for specific environmental review of the project. They filed a petition with the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board with 400 signatures requesting that an Environmental Review Worksheet for the project. The EQB approved the petition and assigned the EAW preparation to DNR; this will move forward in a separate process. This type of project has been seen elsewhere, where water-intensive industries plan to use municipal water supplies to supply water for their projects. Niagara will be opening a new plant in Baltimore County, Maryland in the spring of 2023. The city's 'robust water supply' was listed as a reason this location was chosen - read more here in an April 2022 press release from the Governor of Maryland. Niagara had also proposed a similar plant in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which fell through earlier this year amid local opposition. Here's a link to a Wisconsin Public Radio story on the project. There, Niagara pulled the proposal before the Eau Claire City Council could vote, but WQOQ News 18 reports the plans could be resubmitted. The interstate transfer of water, and inter-basin transfer of water, is an area that needs more policy work. One example is a project where a Rural Water system in northwestern Iowa draws water that's 'sold' to users in the surrounding four-state area. This article in the Iowa Capitol Dispatch shows the impacts that water withdrawals have had on the Ocheyedan River, which has now run dry four out of the last seven years. The water is being pumped from shallow aquifers by the Osceola County Rural Water System, which sells water to the Lincoln-Pipestone Rural Water system used largely by southwestern Minnesotans. (This is not the only source of water used by Lincoln-Pipestone.) According to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch article, the Osceola County Rural Water System has a deadline of March 31, 2023, to submit a plan to potentially reduce its pumping rates when river levels are low. If it doesn’t, “the DNR may unilaterally proceed with other actions to protect the use of the water supply,” according to the letter the department sent to the utility in November. We will continue to report on progress of this project on this blog. Here's a link to a recent on-line news report about the controversy. This news story on the local Twin Cities Fox affiliate provides a video: By Chloe Johnson, Minneapolis Star Tribune; Erin Jordan, The Gazette; Sarah Bowman, Indianapolis Star Published October 13, 2022 at 4:00 AM CDT This article is re-published here with permission from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk at the University of Missouri. The full article can be accessed at this link.  Farmers are dealing with more and heavier rainfall events throughout the Upper Midwest. Some farmers install drainage tiles and trenches to handle the water, but that can lead to soil erosion and flooding downstream. Corn was just starting to tassel across much of the Midwest, including fields in southern Indiana, a golden crown signaling the end of the season. But while most farmers were preparing for harvest, Ray McCormick was climbing back into his tractor to re-drill his soybeans. The southwest Indiana farmer had to drill soybeans in August – for a second time last year, having already lost his spring-planted corn crop – after yet another heavy rain flooded his river-bottom field. “My dad used to say that after July 10, ‘You’re kidding yourself trying to plant,’” said McCormick, who was trying to produce a crop for the landlords who own these fields. McCormick’s delayed planting is one example of how a changing climate – and the rains that come with it – are transforming farm country in the Mississippi River watershed. A hotter atmosphere is causing rain to fall in harder bursts, pushing back planting seasons and drowning crops. At the same time as human-driven climate change is juicing precipitation, Corn Belt farming practices such as installing underground drainage tiles and leaving fields bare after harvest are changing how water moves across the landscape and into waterways. That runoff eventually makes its way south, carrying sediment as well as pollution that contributes to the hypoxic, or oxygen-free, “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. “There is no part of the water cycle we haven’t altered,” said Carrie Jennings, research and policy director with the Minnesota nonprofit advocacy group Freshwater. In Minnesota, flows in the Mississippi River rose 24% in seven decades, according to a 2016 report. Flows have doubled in the Minnesota River, which carries sediment and pollution from the state’s southern farm country into the Mississippi, according to a 2017 study from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. In Indiana, along the Wabash River just upstream from McCormick, flows have increased by at least a third in the last century, according to a report from the Purdue Climate Change Impacts Center. More than 100 U.S. Geological Service stations in Indiana show increased streamflow over the past 30 years. Similar trends of heavier rains and increased flows can be seen across the Midwest region. All that water has to go somewhere. With a changing climate, the farms of the future will look different, experts say. How communities adapt will determine what kind of farming they can do. “This rain isn’t going away,” said Jennifer Kanine, the director of natural resources for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, which has worked to restore wetlands in northwest Indiana’s agricultural areas. “We need to start working with it instead of fighting it,” she continued. “We need to ask, how can we best manage all this water, because we’ve compromised the system so much already.”  Don and Becky Waskosky came close to losing their home to erosion along the Le Sueur River in Mankato, Minn. in 2016 after heavy rains in the area. Want to read more about erosion-caused mayhem along the Minnesota? Read the full article at this link. This story is part of When It Rains, a special series from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. Next month, LWV UMRR blog will re-publish the third article in this series - To Stay or To Go: Increased Flooding Forces Towns to make Hard Choices.
On December 5 at 1pm, Mayor Mitch Reynolds spoke about how his city is working to mitigate these problems both as an individual city and as part of the Mississippi River City and Township Initiative (MRCTI). He also provided an update about a bill now working through Congress - the SMRT Act - that can help cities dealing with these problems. The SMRT Act is formally the "Andrew Young Saving our Mississippi River Together" Act. At the LWV UMRR Annual Meeting, MRCTI's Brandt Thorington provided background and information on the SMRT Act. You can see the video of Brandt's talk at this link, starting at the 24.34 point. And... here's a link to an article about how Illinois groups are urging development of a plan for navigation on the river during extreme low-flow conditions. Mayor Reynolds refers to this work in his talk. Some info on Mayor Reynolds: Mitch Reynolds took office as mayor of the City of La Crosse in April of 2021. This is the first elected office he has held and he was actively engaged in taking on homelessness, developing a strategy for more affordable housing, working on the PFAS contamination issue on French Island and taking part in a forward thinking public works project - building a new state of the art waste water treatment plant. Prior to becoming mayor, Mitch was the Operations Manager for Madison-based Whole Trees, LLC and spent 16 years as a radio journalist in La Crosse at Midwest Family Broadcasting before that. He has also worked as an arborist, a bartender, a room service waiter, a crab fisherman, and a piano mover, among many other occupations. Mitch originally hails from Michigan and spent many years in south Louisiana before moving to Wisconsin and settling in La Crosse in 1994 where he has lived since. He acquire a degree in History from UW-La Crosse and an MBA from Viterbo University. Mitch is married with two adult children and a granddaughter who all live in the community. Mitch is also a member of Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI), a coalition of more than 100 municipalities along the river. It is an association of Mayors along the Mississippi River and its tributaries and businesses. Mitch will share some of the highlights of the association and bring us up-to-date with the progress of the Safeguarding the Mississippi River Together (SMRT) Act. *Source: U of W Extension brochure: https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/climate/files/2014/03/La-Crosse-Climate-Change-brochure7-16-12.pdf
Minnesota's 1989 Ground Water Protection Act: Legacy and Future Directions - Webinar Nov 9, noon10/31/2022 The 1989 Ground Water Protection Act was a major accomplishment, as important to Minnesota water resources as the federal Clean Water Act was back in 1972. In fact, this Act went further than the Clean Water Act because it addressed protection and remediation of ground water, which at that time was the poor step child of water programs. The GWPA was nationally recognized and changed the face of groundwater management in Minnesota forever.
Thirty-three years later, what has changed? The Minnesota Ground Water Association commissioned a team of writers to develop a White Paper that looks at what the GWPA established and required, how the GWPA was implemented and where gaps remain, or where gaps have developed in the ensuing years. The White Paper is now complete, and in the video below, the team provides context for the White Paper by describing what the GWPA encompassed, how it's been implemented today, and where the White Paper finds opportunities for improving groundwater management. Following is the Executive Summary of the White Paper:
Passing with broad bipartisan support, the 1989 Ground Water Protection Act established a framework for protecting Minnesota’s groundwater based on a comprehensive approach designed to prevent degradation of groundwater quantity and quality. Much has changed in over thirty years since passage of this landmark environmental legislation. Groundwater demand has grown. Technology to detect and measure groundwater contaminants has improved, making clear that activities on the land surface affect groundwater quality. The effects of climate change on groundwater quantity and quality are becoming evident. Minnesota Statutes evolved since 1989 to place greater emphasis on groundwater stewardship by formalizing a definition of water sustainability. Funding mechanisms have changed such that funding shortages for important groundwater projects can be expected if the Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment is not extended beyond the sunset date of 2034. The existing and expected changes in water demand, technology and surveillance, climate, statute, and funding make groundwater protection in the 21st century more critical than ever. These factors trigger the need for this Minnesota Ground Water Association White Paper. Through the lens of groundwater sustainability, this White Paper advances a conversation about needed priority policy and management actions, beyond those outlined in the Ground Water Protection Act of 1989. The priority actions are summarized in three main categories: Ensured Stable Funding: Funding for critical groundwater activities must itself be sustainable for groundwater sustainability to be achieved. The Clean Water, Land & Legacy Amendment sunsets in 2034, creating a potential funding gap for critical groundwater activities. Groundwater Sustainability: Minnesota contains a large volume of groundwater, yet groundwater sustainability is not assured. Sustainable groundwater management should be based upon water budgets, where thresholds leading to unacceptable effects are understood, including those related to recharge, discharge, storage, aquatic habitats, and ecological conditions in streams. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources defined groundwater sustainability in statute; this definition could be made more useful through adoption of operational or practical definitions. Specific priority actions to promote groundwater sustainability include:
Water Governance: Recurring proposals to change the structure of Minnesota’s water governance may impede progress toward groundwater sustainability. Proactively meeting these concerns may prevent the creation of unnecessary obstacles to groundwater sustainability efforts. The priority actions discussed above are opportunities to continue the work that originated from the Act, and address issues, ideas and approaches that have arisen in the meantime. Those invested in Minnesota’s groundwater resource should continue to unify policy and management efforts around the central unifying theme of groundwater sustainability. Sustained funding for activities described in this White Paper, and a unified approach to water governance will both be critical to achieving and maintaining groundwater sustainability. MGWA is an appropriate source of technical comment to amendment proposals if they go forward. Thirty years after its passage, Minnesota groundwater professionals recognize the far-sighted impact that the Act has had on the management of Minnesota’s groundwater. Yet the Act has not accomplished everything intended. It did not address all critical risks to groundwater quantity or quality, nor did it provide a complete strategy for protecting Minnesota’s groundwater. Minnesotans must continue to capture the critical measures to support the achievement of sustainable groundwater use and protection. One great accomplishment of the Act is that much of the work necessary for this next step is already done. Flood, drought... is there too much water or not enough? What's going on in the Mississippi Basin?10/30/2022
In a series of articles from the Mississippi River Basin Ag and Water Desk at the University of Missouri, journalists from around the Mississippi Basin report what they found. We will share the articles in the UMRR blog, and will continue to follow their work. The Ag and Water Desk is an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, in partnership with Report For America and the Society of Environmental Journalists, funded by the Walton Family Foundation. When it Rains: After floods hammered St. Louis and eastern Kentucky this summer, the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk wanted to know: Is rainfall increasing in the basin? Desk Editorial Director Tegan Wendland worked with the nonprofit climate research and communication group Climate Central to produce new data analyses on this question. The team found that average annual rainfall has increased by upwards of 8 inches in the past 50 years in much of the region while also falling in heavier bouts, causing repeated flooding and raising many questions about how we live in a wetter world. Those facts are part of When it Rains, a new five-part multimedia series from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. The first installment follows. You may have seen these articles in other press; we will run them as a series of monthly installments in the UMRR blog. THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN IS GETTING WETTER AS CLIMATE CHANGE BRINGS ERA OF EXTREME RAIN, FLOODS (This link will take you to the full article.) By Bryce Gray, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Connor Giffin, The Courier-Journal Published October 11, 2022 at 4:00 AM CDT Much of the Mississippi River basin is getting wetter, according to a new analysis of federal data, while rainfall events are becoming more intense. At the same time, the western half of the U.S. is increasingly prone to drought. In the early morning hours of July 26, many St. Louis-area residents awoke to floodwater filling their homes, or to the din of blaring car alarms from vehicles getting overtaken by murky brown water. Too much rain was falling far too fast. The weather system dumped more than 9 inches on St. Louis – about a quarter of the city’s annual average – compressed largely within a few hours. That same week, torrential rain storms settled on Eastern Kentucky, where up to 16 inches fell and water rushed into people’s homes so swiftly that many didn’t get out in time. Forty people were killed in Eastern Kentucky. Two people died in St. Louis.  Take time to read the rest of the story (thank you, Paul Harvey!) - you will learn about how the intensity of rainfall has increased and is expected to continue increasing; the number of flood-related federal disaster declarations has skyrocketed between 1970 and the 2010's and there's no end in sight.
Are you familiar with the story of the duo that RAN down the entire Mississippi River in 2019? Did you know that along the way, they deeply listened, learned, and gathered the voices and stories of 600 people? Three years later, the next chapter of the epic saga is here... On Tuesday, November 1st at 6 pm CT, join Relay of Voices via Zoom for the launch event of their all-new storytelling platform! At this event, project creator Victoria Bradford Strybicki will release the first of nine chapters and explain the power of this new interactive platform. The event is co-hosted by Mississippi River Network Outreach Manager Michael Anderson and features testimonials from River "voices" and a Q&A. Register here to receive the Zoom link!  Stories are an excellent path to people's hearts, and we look forward to the unveiling of this new resource for all of us. LWV UMRR is a member of the Mississippi River Network. We thank them for their wonderful programs and diligent work on behalf of the River.
We are in the age of plastics... and plastic waste is burying us. What can be done about plastics? Many states and countries are requiring Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging. Would this be an effective approach in Minnesota as well? What are the hallmarks of an effective EPR program?
Rep. Sydney Jordan has a strong, effective EPR for Packaging bill (HF4132) and will be reintroducing it in the Minnesota Legislature again next session. There is also a federal bill - the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/984, If you'd like more information, please reach out to Jennifer Congdon, Beyond Plastics; or Lori Olinger with Sierra Club Northstar Chapter. Following is the checklist of ten essential elements for an effective EPR program. |
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