News

Craig A. Cox

Agricultural runoff – fertilizers and pesticides from cultivated fields, manure from pastures and feedlots, sediment washed away by erosion – pollutes many U.S. lakes and rivers. Craig A. Cox of the Environmental Working Group will talk about the agricultural pollution problem and some strategies for reducing it in a free public lecture on Thursday, Feb. 24,  at the University of Minnesota.

Cox’s lecture, titled “Taking the Pollution out of Agricultural Production,” is sponsored by the Freshwater Society and the university’s College of Biological Sciences. It is part of the Moos Family Speaker Series on Water Resources.

The lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the Student Center theater on the university’s St. Paul campus. Seating is limited, and pre-registration is required.

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Swackhamer

Minnesota needs to do much more research on the flow of rainwater into and through groundwater aquifers. There should be much more required testing of private wells. Clean-up plans drafted for lakes and rivers polluted by agricultural runoff should be mandatory – not voluntary, as they now are. Counties should establish collection programs for pharmaceutical drugs that now often are flushed down the toilet. Water prices should be increased to pay for restoration of the natural plant and animal systems from which the water is taken.

Those are some of the recommendations of 25-year water sustainability plan presented to the Legislature on Jan. 5. The sustainability framework resulted from a yearlong $750,000 planning process led by University of Minnesota professor Debora Swackhamer and the university’s Water Resources Center.

The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board also released on Jan. 5 its long-range water resources plan for the state.

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	A Blue Cross Blue Shield volunteer

Armed with rakes, leaf bags and a commitment to community service and action, a group of 15 volunteers from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota gathered on Nov. 5 to protect Blackhawk Lake in Eagan.

Organizer Susan Schuster of Blue Cross Blue Shield led a “Community Clean-Up for Water Quality” to sweep fallen leaves out of a local park, and out of the storm drains.

Workers from the City of Eagan provided a boat, so volunteers could clean the lakeshore, and a truck to haul the leaves away.

The event was the latest in a series of clean-ups this fall sponsored through a partnership between the Friends of the Minnesota River and the Freshwater Society.  The Friends of the MN River offered community-based cleanups in the Minnesota River Valley for several years before partnering with the Freshwater Society to take the project statewide.

• Find out how your organization can sponsor a Community Clean-Up for Water Quality.

• View a YouTube video from the Blackhawk Lake clean-up.

The  Blackhawk Lake event was the first Cleanup organized by a corporate partner.  The Blue Cross Blue Shield volunteers joined a growing number of citizen groups engaged in direct civic action to protect Minnesota’s water resources.

The Cleanups focus on cleaning up organic debris like leaves and grass from streets, storm drains, boulevards, parking lots and public areas, and taking the debris to a local composting facility.  Organic materials contain high levels of phosphorus, one of the primary sources of pollution that turn Minnesota’s lakes and rivers green with algae.

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University of Minnesota freshwater expert and environmental chemist Deborah Swackhamer will deliver the university’s annual Ada Comstock Distinguished Women Scholars Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4. The lecture – on threats facing freshwater resources and achievements the U.S. has made in moving toward sustainability — will be at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Cowles Auditorium, 301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis.

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