News Archives - Page 30 of 32 - Freshwater Society

Teachers' workshop set for World Affairs Challenge

November 9, 2009 by Freshwater Society

World Savvy, a nonprofit educational organization, is offering a teachers’ workshop on the global water crisis in connection with this year’s World Affairs Challenge on water, a competition for middle- … Read more

9th Annual Road Salt Symposium will be Feb. 3

November 7, 2009 by Freshwater Society

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.

Disposing of medicines: Don't flush them down the toilet

October 29, 2009 by Freshwater Society

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

Forum focuses on nonpoint pollution of Minnesota's waters

October 20, 2009 by Freshwater Society

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.

Nobel Conference water lectures available

October 12, 2009 by Freshwater Society

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

Osterholm warns of threats to groundwater

October 9, 2009 by Freshwater Society


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.

Plan now for 2010 Water is Life art contest

October 6, 2009 by Freshwater Society

The Freshwater Society invites high school artists to compete for scholarships in its sixth annual Water is Life art contest. In the contest, co-sponsored by the Society and seven Minnesota Service Cooperatives, students create works of art that illustrate the value of water and the threats that water resources face today.

Winning entries from this year are on display, through Oct. 31, in the 8400 Building — next to Kincaid’s restaurant — in the Normandale Office Park, 8400 Normandale Lake Blvd., Bloomington. From Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, the entries will be displayed in the offices of Emmons and Olivier Resources, 651 Hale Ave., N., Oakdale.

Kids have fun, learn about water

October 5, 2009 by Freshwater Society

More than 1,200 children learned where rain water goes after it runs into storm drains, analyzed samples from different bodies of water to determine where the water originated and learned ways to keep trash from polluting the water .

The youngsters – fifth-grade students from 20 metro-area schools – took part in the 12^th annual Metro Children’s Water Festival last week.

Earth Day celebrates 40th anniversary

October 5, 2009 by Freshwater Society

Today — April 22 — is the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, the call to consciousness that started the environmental movement in the United States. Check out a new web site, Whitehouse.gov/EarthDay, that will compile success stories of citizens’ efforts to protect the environment. And read a Wall Street Journal column by William Ruckelshaus, the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, about envrironmental successes and the pollution challenges we still face.

Freshwater partners with MEI on Clean Water Legacy forum

October 2, 2009 by Freshwater Society

The Minnesota Environmental Initiative, a statewide environmental non-profit organization will present a policy forum, Clean Water Legacy: Progress and Challenges in Protecting, Restoring and Preserving the Quality of Minnesota’s Waters on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Gray Freshwater Center.

Speakers will discuss Minnesota’s Clean Water Legacy Act, current protection and restoration efforts and challenges to improving the quality of Minnesota’s waters. Speakers include: Steve Morse of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership; Dean Maraldo of the U.S.