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Experts caution about ‘finite’ amount of water in Minnesota
Most of us tend to think the Land of 10,000 Lakes has an unlimited supply of water, but environmental experts say they’re cautious about the use of groundwater.
MINNEAPOLIS — As you may know, water is more than a moniker in Minnesota; it’s a way of life.
We are, officially, the land of 11,842 lakes (> 10 acres). In Minnesota, we have 201 Mud Lakes, 154 Long Lakes and 123 Rice Lakes alone, while other states — like Ohio — have 110 total lakes.
There’s about an acre of water for every 20 acres of land here with more coastline than California, Florida and Hawaii combined, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
“We have a lot of water, but that doesn’t mean we have excess water,” said Barb Naramore, deputy commissioner of the DNR. “I think among some folks in Minnesota there’s a mindset that we have plenty of water.”
This is where the record scratch occurs in the video. Most of us tend to think that the Land of 10,000 Lakes has a rather unlimited supply of water. To explore what Naramore means by this, we set out to answer two seemingly simple questions: How much water do we actually have in Minnesota? And how much do we actually use?
We know there’s a lot of surface water in Minnesota, as about 6% of the entire state is covered with rivers, lakes and wetlands — but that’s not what most of us drink.
In fact, 75% of the drinking water and 90% of irrigation water comes from aquifers under the ground.
According to the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center, we drink, wash, water and flush about 315 billion gallons of groundwater a year. That’s like a half-million Olympic swimming pools or two-and-a-half Lake Minnetonkas.
But to know if our water use is sustainable, we have to know how much water we’ve drawn from underground.
Ellen Considine is a hydrologist supervisor with the DNR. She says we have a good idea of how much is down there, but certainly no perfect picture.
“I like to think of glaciers as drunk bulldozers,” said Considine. “Going back and forth over the landscape and they deposited our aquifers in very unpredictable ways and in unpredictable patterns and then they put a bunch of dirt on top of them. So we can’t see them.”
Our best tools for monitoring groundwater are wells. Considine says this can accurately show the effects of how much we’re pumping from the aquifers in different parts of the state.
At one site on the northwest side of White Bear Lake, the DNR has four wells, each drilled to a different depth to monitor the four, layered aquifers beneath most of the metro.
When asked about population growth and future use of these aquifers, Considine said, “Yeah, I’d say that concern is always there.”
A water-planning report from the Metropolitan Council shows that we are drawing more water from certain areas in the metro faster than they can fill back up.
The yellow dots show wells over time, where the water table is falling year over year.
In Dakota County, which draws the most groundwater per capita of any county in the metro, the Met Council projects that by 2040, periods of drought are “highly likely to result in local shortages” with some cities in the county seeing a 50% depletion of aquifer water.
“If we use water the same way now in the future, we are going to put additional stress on the aquifers,” said Lanya Ross, an environmental analyst with the Met Council. “We were trying to highlight areas where we want to pay attention going into the future.”
This does not spell doom across the state. Far from it. Experts say we could safely pump even more water in many parts of the metro.
But it does spell caution.
“In the metro, we are so lucky. We have generally pretty plentiful aquifers. We should be responsible with them, but they are pretty plentiful. Western Minnesota, the arrowhead in the northeast — very, very limited aquifers. There’s just a lot less groundwater available,” said Considine.
An example of what can go wrong — that did not make the news — happened two summers ago in Warren, Minnesota.
“We were worried that the city of Warren was going to run out of water,” said Considine.
During the drought year of 2021, agricultural irrigation quadrupled in the Warren area, according to a Groundwater Technical Review by the DNR. The extra usage plummeted the aquifer’s water level, dropping some 70 feet in one summer season down to a record low. This triggered the DNR to immediately suspend irrigation permits in the area.
“Irrigators were pumping a lot of water, understandably. They had permits, and they needed to keep their crops alive. But as we looked at the data, we realized that if we at the DNR didn’t intervene pretty quickly there was a risk there that the city of Warren would run out of water,” said Considine.
Understanding the complexity of the state’s hydrological system can be quite the task. So, we asked the DNR’s state climatologist, Luigi Romolo, to summarize.
“I think that perhaps the biggest change will be the perception that Minnesota’s water supply is a bottomless pit, and I think people are starting to realize that there is a finite amount of water here in Minnesota. Even in the Land of 10,000 Lakes,” said Romolo.
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EDINA, Minn. — The Edina football team fell just a few yards short of winning the Minnesota State 6A Football Championship last season.
Coach Jason Potts and his team are off to a great start again this fall — and hoping to make it back to US Bank Stadium.
But at the end of the day, the Hornets said it’s the journey of one of their teammates that inspires them to keep moving forward.
“All of the doctors that I’ve had in the past doubted me a lot. It felt good to finally put on pads for the first time,” said Edina junior John Liddicoat.
Friday nights in the fall illuminate the beauty of a dream being achieved.
“I love the feeling of Friday night. Looking at the student section right before running out the tunnel, getting that adrenaline rush,” said Liddicoat.
For Liddicoat, Fridays at Kuhlman Stadium transform into a canvas of joy, inspiration and bravery.
“He’s one of the most brave guys that I’ve ever coached,” said Potts.
Pushing limits is something John has done since day one.
“John was diagnosed with Williams syndrome when he was 5 months old,” said Mary Liddicoat, John’s Mom.
“It was devastating. We were devastated. We’d never heard of the syndrome, and he was super little and it was super scary,” she added.
Williams syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that impacts many parts of the body, including cognitive delay, speech and motor skills.
“The day he was diagnosed, the geneticist said he’ll never ride a bike, and I think we both made a mental note: We’ll see,” said Liddicoat’s dad, also named John. “He can ride a bike; he didn’t learn at 3 like his brother, but he learned at 10 and he says it’s his mode of transportation now.”
John handled the handlebars… up next? A bigger challenge to tackle.
“It’s kind of a big dream of mine when I was younger to play football,” said John.
“More than any other sport, he’s always wanted to play football. Every year, when I would drive him to school, and the register for tackle football youth football signs would go up, and John would look at me in the car and say, ‘Mom, I want to play football!’ And I would say, ‘We’re not sure that’s a safe option for you,'” said Mary.
Safety concerns gave way to John’s bravery and a coach who refused to say “no” to a kid’s dream.
“One of my goals is to have access to a football program for everybody, and I didn’t want any excuses for someone to not play football, and that’s why I’m here at Edina, is to help young people chase their greatest potential,” said Potts.
“Putting on pads for the first time. Putting on a helmet for the first time. Just getting on the field, seeing my buddies, it was just a wow moment. Like, wow, I’m in pads and cleats, I’m playing football!” said John.
For the past three years, John has played football alongside his brothers, like QB Mason West.
“I’ve known him since probably first grade, and ever since, he’s just been a really smiley and happy dude. It’s honestly really fun to be around him. All of my friends love him, and it’s so good having him as part of this team,” said West.
“Just to have him on the field in the program is something special, and what he accomplishes, I don’t think he understands what he brings to the program,” said Potts.
John’s enthusiasm radiates along the sidelines every Friday night, starring in his role, encouraging teammates and coaches alike.
“You know, I might get down on myself and maybe I made a bad play call or geez, it’s raining — what do we do? And all of the sudden, you bump into John, and he just kind of flips you. And he does that to other players as well. When things get tough, it’s like you bump into John, and he’s there to lift you,” said Potts.
Lifting and inspiring others to achieve their dreams as well.
“I like to play for the other kids with disabilities that can’t do much. For me, I see kids with worse disabilities than mine, and I always feel like I need to show the world that not only can kids with disabilities do stuff, but they can play high-impact sports like football or wrestling or whatever sport they want to do,” said John.
MINNEAPOLIS — There’s a new hi-tech way for visitors to learn about downtown Minneapolis.
City officials on Wednesday cut the ribbon on new kiosks called “IKE.” They’re loaded with information so users can search for restaurants, small businesses, bathrooms and events in the area.
Unlike using a major search engine like Google, this is all tailored for Minneapolis.
“Each kiosk is going to organize based on proximity. So unlike traditional search engines that you might work with, you can’t pay for optimization. So when you select eat and drink here, the businesses in the immediate proximity end up being featured. And we hope that this functions as a way to help people discover those businesses that make Minneapolis truly unique,” said Jibran Shermohammed of IKE Smart City.
Five kiosks are live now, including one on Nicollet Mall and 20 will go live will go live by spring next year.
More than 100,000 travelers will fly out of MSP Wednesday and Thursday, but thousands more are planning a ‘staycation’ over MEA break.
LAKEVILLE, Minn. — At MSP airport, officials say Wednesday and Thursday will be the two busiest days for departures during MEA break this year. More than 49,000 travelers are expected to fly out of MSP on Wednesday, and more than 52,000 are expected to depart on Thursday. Airport officials say Thursday could become the 5th busiest travel day ever.
Meanwhile, countless families in Minnesota are planning “staycations” closer to home. At Applewood Orchard in Lakeville, workers are preparing for a busy week.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing the turnout,” employee Jackson Cox said. “If the turnout is a little lower than we think it’s always better to be prepared for more.”
The Cox family recently acquired the apple orchard, so this will be their first time hosting visitors during an MEA break.
“We’re pretty much extending all of our weekend activities to every day this week. We’re selling mini donuts, tractor rides, and more food, because we are hoping a lot of people will stop by,” Cox said.
One visitor who stopped by Wednesday was Natasha Apple from Apple Valley. That’s right, the word apple is in her name, the city she lives in, and the place she visited Wednesday afternoon.
“You really can’t make that up,” Apple laughed. “Me and my husband get it all the time. We’re the Apples and we live in Apple Valley, and we love apple orchards.”
Apple was visiting the orchard with a mom’s group from Apple Valley.
“There are eight of us here I believe,” Apple said. “It’s still stinking beautiful out so we are taking full advantage of the weather.”
And they weren’t alone at the orchard. Jenny Yohnke from Lakeville stopped by the orchard with her three boys.
“With three boys they have a lot of energy, so I brought them to the corn pit to have some fun,” Yohnke said.
She has big plans for the rest of MEA break.
“We’re heading out to the zoo tomorrow and then we have some friends with school kids, my friend from work coming to visit on Friday. We have a busy week of fun,” Yohnke said.
Other parents at the orchard said they are planning to stop by a pumpkin patch later in the week to buy their Halloween pumpkins.
Another common “staycation” idea was to enjoy a nature hike to see the fall colors, or to go to the movie theater to see a movie, or stop by the local library.
So, if you’re looking for a fun and affordable activity to get your family out of the house there are several options to choose from.
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