State of Water

State of Water

June 2024

Summary

Our top observations, needs, and barriers for water in Minnesota are outlined below, along with specific actions to address them. These include:

  1. Water management is fractured and siloed – and collaboration is a must.
  2. Water needs are regional and local. Keep meeting as a watershed.
  3. Everyone should have access to safe drinking water.
  4. Authentic community engagement is critical to the success of planning, projects and programs.
  5. We take clean and safe water for granted in Minnesota.
  6. The water industry needs dollars and people.
  7. Changes in climate impact water – integrate water needs into climate initiatives.
  8. Improved land management is needed for better water.
  9. We must cultivate funding navigators.

We believe that everyone should have access to clean, safe, affordable drinking water and wastewater services. All communities should be resilient in the face of climate risks, have a role in decision-making processes related to water management, and share in the economic, social, and environmental benefits of water systems. Here's how we think that can happen.

1) Water management is fractured and siloed – and collaboration is a must.

Nobody is in charge, and everyone is in charge. There are multiple state agencies, regional organizations, local units of government, and community organizations, all working in water. While we are all doing great things, collaboration is hard, and it’s easier to work alone. There’s a huge opportunity we aren’t yet capitalizing on to share resources statewide. Working across water sectors statewide requires relationships and collaboration. In this era of heavy workloads, and big problems, how can we better work together?

  • Action: Build opportunities for collaboration between researchers, private companies, agriculture, recreation, water utilities, local units of government, and policymakers.

2) Water needs are regional and local. Keep meeting as a watershed.

What is important for northern Minnesota differs from central and western Minnesota, and from southeastern Minnesota or the Arrowhead region. Continuing to convene on a regional and watershed level is critical to effective planning for the future of water.

  • Action: Regional partners should be meeting regularly across sectors to develop, update and implement watershed plans.

3) Everyone should have access to safe drinking water.

No matter where you live, everyone should have access to safe drinking water. Not everyone has safe drinking water in Minnesota, and there are needs in communities of color, tribal nations, and rural communities.

  • Action: Tribal governments, rural communities and private well owners need better drinking water protections and access to funding for lead service line replacement, PFAS treatment, and nitrate and arsenic mitigation.

4) Authentic community engagement is critical to the success of planning, projects and programs.

Let’s all work together to make sure all community voices are invited, heard and incorporated into our work. Communities want to give feedback and be integrated into planning early. We need to better communicate science into plain language, so we all understand. We need to empower community members to be our water champions by meeting them where they are and listening to the water priorities unique to their communities.

5) We take clean and safe water for granted in Minnesota.

We should all value water, especially groundwater that supplies 75 percent of the drinking water in Minnesota. While we aren’t in crisis compared to other parts of the country or world, we can’t afford to be apathetic. Minnesota needs to be efficient with our water use, promote a circular water economy on the public and private side, and reuse and recharge water to keep it in our watersheds and state. To date, we’ve focused more on science, the technical solutions, rather than communication with the public. We’re missing a critical link; water is nonpartisan and can be something that connects us.

  • Action: Share water stories. Work with communications professionals and journalists to relay needs and priorities in plain language to the public and policy makers.
  • Action: Explore and invest in the Circular Water Economy and water reuse and recharge efforts.
  • Action: Partner to implement new technologies. Lean into innovative thinking and challenge the status quo.
  • Action: Broaden our thinking from water as a resource to be managed and allocated, and instead view water as a shared value for our state, economies and communities.

6) The water industry needs dollars and people.

The water sector faces shortfalls in both funding and available workforce. We must do more with less in terms of budgets and people. How can we better communicate our needs? What are the needs of all the groups across the state? What are the existing programs and gaps?

  • Action: Invest in water workforce programs, infrastructure, funding, local units of government, and utilities.

7) Changes in climate impact water – integrate water needs into climate initiatives.

There is no doubt that water infrastructure and aquatic ecosystems resources are impacted by changes in climate. We are experiencing unpredictable periods of heavy rains and then drought, wetter and warmer weather , and less winter ice cover. Our historical hydrologic patterns have been altered. We maintain that the effective climate solutions are those integrated with water benefits, such as improved farming practices and sustainably designed water systems.

  • Action: Integrate water into climate solutions. Be attentive to unintended consequences to water from new climate efforts.

8) Improved land management is needed for better water.

What happens at the surface affects water. However, it doesn’t always have to be a case of industry versus the environment. We can have agriculture and healthy groundwater. We can have mining and source water protection. We can have stable shorelines and development. Let’s connect researchers and policymakers to identify suitable locations and best practices. In many cases, solutions already exist but need to be shared across sectors.

  • Action: Invest in soil health, shoreline restoration, water storage projects, and conservation easements.

9) We must cultivate funding navigators.

One of the most frequent questions we get is about funding: who has funding, how does one apply, what is needed to apply. The current local, state, federal and private funding landscape is fractured and complicated, hard to navigate even for seasoned professionals. How do we make sure everyone has access to funding and technical assistance?

  • Action: Identify and support funding navigators and navigation tools for regenerative agriculture, soil health practices, private wells, infrastructure improvements, etc.

Call to action

Join us in our work for water!

The alternative is inaction, which would result in the loss of clean and safe water in our state. Let’s keep Minnesota a national water leader and live up to our water ethic and headwaters status.

Please be a collaborator and partner with us in this work! We would welcome your time, financial contribution, or project and policy ideas.

Contact Freshwater