Governor's Water Summit Browse Recent ideas

Solar disinfection and transportation pipes can pump needed water supplies to higher elevations. Strategically-placed passive solar pipeline heating would create a pumping action by convection, over hills and mountains, then down to a cooler shaded decline in elevation of ground or of a man-made well. With all ends below supply and destination pond levels always, the sunniest and driest states would experience drought ...more »

We can't say who'll win the presidential election this fall, but at least one candidate has expressed a willingness to address the issues surrounding water quality and quantities, head-on. You can believe who you want. Promises in an election year come more easily said, than done. But given the chance that the Mississippi River basin is needed to fend off the effects of a La Nina drought, or of those certain to come, ...more »

A Governor's task force should be able to define ways of using satellite observations of cropland and watershed algal blooms to plot which 'hot spots' need first actions. Then, they can promote municipal and farm satellite connectivity that allows accurate reporting of critical wellhead volumes of usage, and also as a way of initiating the use of smart controls for automated irrigation. That, is a good means of targeting ...more »

The biggest water problem is the way Americans do agriculture. Giant corporations own giant farms, which are farmed with extensive use of irrigation water and chemicals, depleting soils, creating disease, destroying pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Subsidies, regulations, and tax structures encourage them. Solution: Support transition to crops requiring less water and fewer chemicals. Increase support for cover ...more »

Heavy rains are a problem. They run off pavements, get poisoned, are funneled into storm sewers, and have to be managed. In the country they run off depleted soils, damage bridges and roads, and create floods. Some solutions have already been proposed. This overview emphasizes education, changing building codes and regulations, and removing financial barriers. Homes: Encourage homeowners to use rain water – watering ...more »

Presently, properties are taxed at their "highest and best use." Unfortunately that is defined as the use most involved in the economic system - for instance, to clearcut a forest, or to turn a farm into a parking lot, rather than to provide wildlife habitat, produce oxygen, or support bees and butterflies. This is phrased inclusively, with water benefits as one important factor. The value of land needs to be redefined, ...more »

The popular US Farm Report pointed-out that in the settlement days of yesteryear, when county and township road spacing was specified in opening the wilderness to farming, many, many more residents filled the rural communities and they needed all of that road maintenance done. However, given the giant size of farms in the tens of thousands of acres, instead of hundreds or less, so many of those rural roads should reasonably ...more »

Industrial animal agriculture a/k/a factory farms have the benefit of free water in the State of Minnesota. There is a reason these large industrial-sized operations are here in Minnesota. While there is a small permit fee of $150 for factory farms that require more than 1 million gallons of water, there is no charge for the water. There are nearly 18,000 registered feedlots in Minnesota. Of those, approximately 1,219 ...more »

The counties administer Chapter 7080, the septic code. However, there is no oversight. The professionals fear retribution should they turn their county in for obvious and blatant violations. The result is that the counties do as they want. They decide what they "feel" like enforcing. They rarely do enforcement because of the paperwork. They do not file the proper paperwork when they are on the site or worse they ...more »

The PCA charges the counties with administration of Chapter 7080, they also give the counties $10,000 to that end. However, there are hundreds of municipalities and townships with their own programs, governed by the same rules and never receive one red cent from either the PCA or the Counties in the administration of this program. Without proper resources how well do you think they manage the program. Just because ...more »

Currently, the DNR manages our lakes like a teenager babysitter with a cell phone. Unless they smell smoke they are doing something else. What is needed is Lake Managers with specialties in lake types and local hydrology/geology and biology to manage each water body. There are lakes 50 miles from St. Paul with Phosphorus levels over 400 ppb. Does the DNR do anything? Do they have or use restoration plans? No. ...more »

I don't know the answer, but the question is intriguing: Just how would Twin Cities and out-state families get clean water, in the event of a terrorist attack on the electrical power grid? Would generators run wastewater treatment plants? Would folks have to flush with creek water? Bathe with boiled stream or rainwater? Some have argued that it's not a matter of how this will occur, it's when. But tornado violence has ...more »