Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

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Anondson
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Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » September 25th, 2016, 10:14 am

Interesting article covering how local cities are responding to the collapse in ground water and aquifer levels from mining water faster than it replenish naturally.

http://www.startribune.com/twin-cities- ... 394695621/

But the ground is sinking in some places because it's being used too fast. This doesn't become undone, its permanent.

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Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » September 25th, 2016, 10:24 am

And this quote: "... available supplies won’t support future demands unless the community actively manages the situation."

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » January 17th, 2017, 9:10 pm

$500M proposed to permanently preserve land to protect threatened waters. The area of the project includes Hennepin, Carver, Scott, and Dakota counties but otherwise is a vast swath of western, southwest, and south Minnesota.

http://www.startribune.com/dayton-annou ... 410986245/

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » February 23rd, 2017, 9:01 am

It's going to be expensive for Washington County to add more sprawly development.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/02/23/wa ... es-costly/

Grab river water, drain the aquifers even more, retreat polluted water, or connect to St. Paul's excess.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Silophant » February 23rd, 2017, 9:36 am

Though not the cheapest in the short term, it seems like a no-brainer to tap into the St. Paul supply. Economies of scale and all that.
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Anondson
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Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » March 7th, 2017, 11:11 am

White Bear Lake lakeshore landowners are suing the DNR for failing to foresee northeast metro development, at the rate the DNR permitted well drilling, would cause lake levels to plummet.

http://m.startribune.com/was-state-to-b ... ection=%2F

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » April 3rd, 2017, 4:21 pm

Recent UofM study of urban runoff finds lawns, dogs, and pavement are worst causes of the urban contributions phosphorus and nitrogen pollution.

http://m.startribune.com/what-pollutes- ... ection=%2F

Still, ag was 60% of nitrogen runoff alone.

1/5 of lawn fertilizer users were 3/5 of the phosphorus runoff.

And the jerks who sweep or blow lawn clippings and leaves into the street are the scientific consensus worst neighbors ever (from a water pollution perspective).

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » April 9th, 2017, 10:44 pm

The big lawsuit against the DNR for too lightly regulating well drilling for aquifer water around White Bear Lake got a detailed write up.

http://www.startribune.com/white-bear-r ... 418775874/

Significant impact on suburban development in areas where water cannot be sustainable acquired. Lawsuit will be ruled on this summer.

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Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » April 10th, 2017, 7:54 pm

Road salt use may cause metro lakes to permanently not support native fish by 2050 (30 years).

http://m.startribune.com/rising-salt-le ... 419088124/

Road salt is a permanent pollutant in our lakes and ponds.

I dunno, there is a vast number of drivers that's never buy snow tires. I can't believe I went as long as I did before buying winter tires for my car, they made a HUGE difference to my driving on snow and ice.

IMO, it seems like a worthwhile idea to increase the financial penalties for car crashes if vehicles don't have winter tires in winter weather. Then drastically cut salt use on roads.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby mamundsen » April 10th, 2017, 10:27 pm

I was appalled at the salt over usage at the Maplewood Mall transit center this past winter. It was as if the maintenance crew was opening bags and just dumping the entire contents in a pile every few feet. I half expect to see it again tomorrow morning with this little sneet dusting.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby QuietBlue » April 11th, 2017, 11:07 am

There are some states that mandate winter tires or chains in snowy conditions (and where not having them can get you a ticket), but I've never heard of a state that said only winter tires were acceptable to meet the requirement. As for Canada, the only province that requires them across the board in Quebec, though certain areas of BC and Alberta also do.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » April 26th, 2017, 8:20 pm

The city of Blaine had water service disruptions recently. An outside firm was hired and discovered they were using obsolete insecure software to run the city water infrastructure.

http://www.startribune.com/blaine-s-wat ... 420549063/

I've heard that some of the problems came down to the system was hacked. If it was such ancient software, what's the likelihood it was some Windows 95/98 system connected to the Internet?

Our drinking water delivery network threatened in some areas because fiscally restrained cities choose to not upgrade hackable software? Great.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby FISHMANPET » April 26th, 2017, 8:34 pm

Minneapolis is going to be moving to a new water meter system that continuously sends usage data to the city via a wireless network, rather than the current system which broadcasts the data to a very limited range, requiring a truck to drive every city street every month to collect water usage data.

I asked about it in the CLIC presentations last week, and whoever it was that was presenting (head of water distribution?) said that the system would be Software as a Service, so they'd always be running updated software.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Mooglemuffins » April 26th, 2017, 8:36 pm

I wouldn't be surprised if it was some 20 year old operating system. Hell, when I worked for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage we had some systems that had to run in super outdated compatibility just because the government programs they networked with for mortgage processing were ancient. The question is when is it all going to give :( Hopefully people get more on the alert about it so we don't end up with contaminated pipes and old computer systems that don't notice problems until one of our own cities turns into a Flint.
Minneapolis is going to be moving to a new water meter system that continuously sends usage data to the city via a wireless network.
That's promising to hear at least!

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » May 9th, 2017, 3:28 pm

The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District published a blog post on the early history of settlement along the creek. Very cool.

http://www.minnehahacreek.org/blog/sett ... -watershed

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » May 9th, 2017, 6:49 pm

Vox did their thing regarding national water infrastructure.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/ ... y-millions

Pretty good reminder at the scale of the underfunding or the underestimated needs.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » August 30th, 2017, 9:01 pm

Judge ruled the DNR didn’t do enough to protect lake levels and order the DNR to stop issuing permits for new wells in five mile radius until they know levels are sustainable.

http://www.startribune.com/judge-rules- ... 442280403/

I’d love to see a map of thus five mile radius from the lake shore to see what land is left in the area where new wells could be drawn.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby mamundsen » August 30th, 2017, 11:33 pm

Living in WBL, I've tried to follow this closely. Few tidbits though:

1. I wonder the real implications of this:
Under her ruling, the state must ban residential irrigation when White Bear Lake falls below 923.5 feet above sea level and continue the ban until the lake rises to 924 feet.
Many of my neighbors love their lawns. I haven't watered since around the 4th of July! :D

2. They mention the lawyers did it pro bono. But there is a litigation fee that was recently added to the water bills. I wonder if this is getting refunded.

http://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/new ... c2ab9.html
As of Dec. 31, 2016, the city has incurred about $275,000 in legal costs defending its water system infrastructure. Additional costs are expected to be considerable when the case goes to trial in March.

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby Anondson » May 14th, 2018, 7:46 pm

The judge’s ruling regarding White Bear Lake pumping could affect hundreds of thousands of home owners in the St. Paul system because a handful of pumps are within 5 miles of White Bear Lake.

http://www.startribune.com/bill-would-h ... 482595781/

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Re: Regional Water Resources (Aquifers, Rivers, Lakes)

Postby mamundsen » May 15th, 2018, 6:45 am

I keep wondering if we currently have the irrigation ban or not? I haven't seen many neighbors turn on their systems yet.


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