Registration for the 9th Annual Road Salt Symposium is now open.
Keeping Our Winter Roads Safe While Protecting Our Waters
Date: Feb. 3, 2010
Time: 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North
Brooklyn Center, MN
To register, click here.
Freshwater Society
Water use down; ethanol plants penalized
U.S. water use is declining, according to a new report. After a long delay, the EPA orders tests on suspected endocrine disruptors. Two Minnesota ethanol plants will pay penalties for pollution. And … Read more
Disposing of medicines: Don't flush them down the toilet
Old and 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 … Read more
Health costs of fossil fuels; irrigation's demand
The cost — in terms of health care — of fossil fuels. A looming battle in California over desalination. The demands irrigators make on the Colorado River’s waters. Check out … Read more
Forum focuses on nonpoint pollution of Minnesota's waters
Is Minnesota making progress toward cleaning up the 40 percent of its rivers and lakes that suffer from some type of pollution that makes then unfit for swimming or fishing or inhospitable to the aquatic species that live in them?
Are the Legislature and state agencies on the right track toward spending the estimated $3.25 billion that a sales tax increase last year will yield over 25 years for protecting and restoring water?
About 100 people gathered Tuesday, Oct. 20, at a forum to ask, and try to answer, those questions.
The forum was sponsored by the Minnesota Environmental Initiative and hosted by the Freshwater Society at the Gray Freshwater Center in Excelsior. To view participants’ presentations, click here.
Tougher water enforcement; bow fishing for invasives
EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson announces a tougher effort to enforce water quality rules. An Illinois man, confronted with a river full of jumping Asian carp, develops a new sport: … Read more
Nobel Conference water lectures available
Lectures by nine distinguished speakers who spoke at Gustavus Adolphus College’s recent Nobel Conference on water, H2O: Uncertain Resource, are available online at the college’s web site. To see a … Read more
Atrazine, dairy pollution and sewage rules
EPA considers new rules on atrazine TheEnvironmental Protection Agency plans to conduct a new study about the potential health risks of atrazine, a widely used weedkiller that recent research suggests … Read more
DNR report recommends 200 monitoring wells
The Twin Cities need about 200 new monitoring wells, at a cost of nearly $9 million over four years, for state agencies to keep track of how much water we … Read more
Osterholm warns of threats to groundwater
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| 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.