News

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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While you’re at the Minnesota State Fair, visit the Eco Experience and learn about protecting water, recycling and conserving energy.

The exhibit, sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, includes:

• A Net Zero Eco House, with a solar façade, green roof, and large, south-facing windows. The design emphasizes the relationship between a home and the surrounding lot, gardens, weather and the seasons.
  

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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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