The Freshwater Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring people to value, conserve and protect all water resources. Read more
Do you want to protect the quality of drinking water and ensure it is used sustainably? Do you want to protect the water in a lake near you? The Freshwater Society publishes fact sheets and a lake protection guide. Read more
The Freshwater Society Launches 2010 – The Year of Water. Read more here.
Catch up on the news: Week of Feb. 6
Every week, the Freshwater Society posts a digest of importan regional, national and international articles about water. Scan the digest, then follow the links. Go to the Freshwater Society Blog from the menu, above, or click here.
Robert Glennon: Provocative answers to water questions
Robert Glennon
Is the United State experiencing a water crisis? Are we wasting vast amounts of water in the way we dispose of human wastes? Should we figure out a way for people to buy and sell the right to use water? And should we have a national tax on water?
Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona law professor who has written two engaging and provocative books on water, answers a resounding "yes" to each of those questions.
You will want to hear Glennon when he speaks Feb. 22 in lecture sponsored by the Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences as part of 2010 - The Year of Water. The event will be at 7 p.m. in the University of Minnesota's St. Paul Student Center Theater.
Glennon's lecture is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and pre-registration is required. To register, click here.
To read an interview with Glennon from Facets of Freshwater, the Freshwater Society's newsletter, click here.
Road salt conference draws 160
Cassandra McKinney
More than 160 people from throughout the Midwest attended the Fresh Water Society's ninth annual Road Salt Symposium on Feb. 3 in Brooklyn Center. The attendees -- ranging from transporation workers, to researchers, to watershed district administrators -- learned about, and discussed, the latest research on chloride pollution in lakes, rivers and groundwater.
Experts also described the newest innovations in equipment, chemical alternatives and non-chemical alternatives to road salt that will lessen its that pollution.
One of the featured speakers, Cassandra McKinney, water resources manager for McHenry County, Ill. She spoke about the impact chlorides from road salt have had on her region's groundwater, which is the primary source for drinking water in the area. She described policies she developed for the county to mitigate these impacts.
Will Steger helps inaugurate 2010 - The Year of Water
Polar explorer Will Steger, speaking Jan. 26
Steger calls for action to halt global warming
The Earth and the humans and other animals who live on it are like a heart patient with high cholesterol, polar explorer Will Steger told about 200 people who crowded into the Gray Freshwater Center on Jan. 26 for a lecture on climate change.
The cholesterol, Steger said, is the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are accumulating in the atmosphere and creating global warming. Some people still question the science of climate change, but Steger said he has seen evidence of it first-hand in his travels - collapsing ice shelves in Antarctica and rotting ice in the Arctic Ocean.
Unless human beings reduce their use fossil fuels and reduce the concentrations of those gases, they risk catastrophic consequences, he said.
Steger, whose lecture was part of a kick-off for the Freshwater Society's 2010 - The Year of Water, showed slides and video of areas of Antarctic ice that he had spent 15 days crossing by dogsled that are now open sea.
In the Arctic, each increase in the temperature melts permafrost, releasing methane - a particularly potent greenhouse gas - and the methane then increases the warming, he said. "It's incredible the changes each year in the Arctic," he said.
Steger urged the crowd to work to reduce the United States' reliance on fossil fuels. And he urged those in attendance to view U.S. dependence on coal and petroleum, not just as a climate problem, but as economic and national security problems.
Steger, relating evidence of climate change
2010 - The Year of Water officially begins Students timing their showers and counting loads of laundry. Volunteers fighting pollution of lakes and rivers by cleaning leaves from storm sewers. National experts delivering provocative lectures on water and the environment. Throughout 2010, the Freshwater Society - with partners throughout Minnesota - will celebrate the value of water and take concrete actions to conserve, protect and restore water resources.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty issued a proclamation in honor of the 2010 celebration, naming Jan. 26 as Water Resources Day in Minnesota.
Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona law professor who recently has published a new book, Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It, will deliver a lecture on water on Feb. 22 as part of the Year of Water celebration.
To read more about activities planned for 2010 - The Year of Water in Facets of Freshwater, the Freshwater Society's newsletter, click here.
Other articles from the newsletter include:
An interview with Steger. To view a WCCO-TV interview with Steger, click here.
Freshwater founder Dick Gray writes about the early history of the Freshwater Society.
Freshwater president Gene Merriam reflects on 2010 - The Year of Water and other Freshwater activities.
Not everyone knows about it, but the Twin Cities metro area has a 72-mile national park along both banks of the Mississippi River.
The University of Minnesota Water Resources Center wants to know what you think about the future of our waters. You can fill out an on-line survey and attend public meetings.
Disposing of pharmaceuticals: The garbage can, not the toilet
Unused drugs - both prescription and non-prescription - are a major source of water pollution.
Many drugs contain endocrine-disrupting compounds that can interfere with the hormonal systems that regulate the bodily functions of fish and other animals, including humans.
Photo: MPCA
At one time, the standard advice on disposing of medications was: Flush them down the toilet or pour them into a drain. That almost never is the correct means of disposal now.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency recommends you dispose of unneeded drugs this way:
Keep medications in their original containers. Leave the content information and safety warning intact; scratch out patient identification information.
For pills and capsules, add water to partially dissolve them.
For liquids, add table salt, flour, charcoal or another substance that will discourage consumption.
For blister packs, wrap them in opaque tape - such as duct tape - to hide their contents.
Tape the medicine container shut and put it inside another container such as a yogurt or magarine tub.
Discard the container with your garbage; don't recycle it.
For a very few, very powerful drugs that could be fatal in a single dose, the federal Food and Drug Administration still recommends flushing them down a toilet or pouring them in a drain. For information on those drugs, click here.
Osterholm warns of threats to groundwater
Michael Osterholm
In a world with a constantly growing population and an increasing threat of pollution from tens of thousands of chemical compounds, clean water will someday be as valuable as oil, Michael Osterholm predicted in a forum on groundwater sustainability and quality.
Osterholm, an international expert on infectious diseases, was the featured speaker Thursday, Oct. 8, in a forum co-sponsored by the Freshwater Society and three League of Women Voters chapters. To view the presentation, click here to see a video taped by the Lake Minnetonka Cable Commission, Channel 21.
About 100 people listened raptly as Osterholm talked about the world's reliance on groundwater and the threats groundwater faces from overuse and from chemical contamination. Osterholm, who serves on an advisory group for the Freshwater Society, said he was convinced that in Minnesota, and around the world, groundwater is being pumped faster than it is being returned to aquifers through recharge from rain and snow.
