Freshwater Society

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that half of all the water put on lawns each year is wasted. Here are some tips to help you save water and have a green lawn:

• If you are building a new home or laying new sod, be sure there is at least 6 inches of topsoil beneath the sod.

• Test your soil and consider adding compost as organic material. It will dramatically increase the absorption of water.

• Follow the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense guidelines for landscaping:  Limit the amount of turf you plant, don’t plant grass on steep slopes, don’t install ornamental water features.
  

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Minnesotans used 1.4 trillion gallons of water in 2007. The electrical power industry used 839 billion gallons, mostly for pass-through cooling. Public waterworks used 227 billion gallons. Industries – led by mines and paper producers — used 167 billion gallons. Farmers and other users pumped 167 billion gallons for irrigation. None of the totals includes many small – less than 10,000 gallons a day or 1 million gallons a year — private wells that are not required to report their water usage to the state. — Source: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

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