If you live in an average U.S. household, you may waste up to 10,000 gallons of water each year because of a faulty or outdated toilet, dripping faucets, leaking valves or other common plumbing issues, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Minnesota, where a growing population increasingly relies on an unseen water source that takes thousands of years to replenish, it is time for all of us to think about proactive water quantity management.
In Minnesota, three-fourths of the water supply comes from groundwater. This is the inverse of the rest of the country, whose water needs are mainly met by rivers, lakes or other surface water. In the past 25 years, Minnesota’s groundwater use has increased 35 percent, according to the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board’s “2015 Water Policy Report.”
Municipally-supplied water systems, agricultural irrigation and industrial manufacturing are the three largest groundwater usage categories in Minnesota, according to the report. Municipal water systems account for more than half of groundwater use, totaling approximately 126 billion gallons of water in 2011. One-third of that water is used for residential irrigation or landscaping, according to a presentation at Gov. Mark Dayton’s water summit earlier this year.
Be it irrigation, hosing down a vehicle, watering a lawn, filling a power plant tank, making snow on a ski hill or one of the many other purposes other than human consumption, there is an expense and consequence for how we manage this resource. Much of that water only gets used once before it must be treated through a sanitary system and eventually dumped into the Mississippi or Minnesota rivers.
Treated water that is deposited in those rivers can no longer contribute to the already sluggish recharge of aquifers from which it came. We are flushing re-usable – and sometimes nearly potable – water down a massive drain.
Around Lake Minnetonka, groundwater levels have been declining for six decades, according to the Freshwater Society. It reports that groundwater levels near Lake Minnetonka communities have dropped more than 20 feet since 1945.
The canary in the coalmine, though, might well be the story of White Bear Lake. It has long suffered from rising and falling water levels, many thought because of changes in rain or snowfall levels. While that does play a role, it does not completely explain the dramatic reduction in lake levels in the last 13 years. Since 2003, the lake level has fallen by five feet. Through years of testing, researchers have now determined the lake is actually connected to groundwater aquifers. As more water gets pumped out of those aquifers by increased urban development, the lake level is reduced.
In Southwest Minnesota, where groundwater is not nearly as plentiful, consumers have already learned how to be more conscious of their water consumption. In Marshall, that awareness has reduced per capita water usage to just 60 gallons per day. By comparison, residents in Coon Rapids, Champlin, Edina, Rosemount, Lakeville, Eden Prairie and Andover, on average, are consuming more than 90 gallons per day (2008-2012 usage).
Despite the publicized groundwater troubles, the beginning of a possible long-term, systematic solution may not be getting as much attention. In 2013, the DNR began drafting a strategic plan for its Groundwater Management Program. It also initiated three groundwater management pilot programs authorized by the state Legislature. Those programs are taking place in the east and north Twin Cities metro around White Bear Lake; the Bonanza Valley in West Central Minnesota, west of St. Cloud; and the Straight River near Park Rapids.
The underlying objectives of the pilot program are: sustainable groundwater management through bolstered water-level monitoring and data collection; determining what water-level thresholds would require limiting water pumping; public involvement; and enhanced collaboration among multiple water-related agencies.
But these measures are only at the beginning of the water wells. The true management will have to come from demand-side of our systematically undervalued and under-appreciated commodity. That includes wise use of water by residential consumers and industries.
The EQB’s “2015 Water Policy Report” shows that agricultural irrigators, whose use accounted for 34 percent of Minnesota groundwater pumping (88 billion gallons) in 2011, have begun making low-pressure systems an industry standard, and the DNR plans on adding 39 weather stations to the current 11 across the state that help farmers better predict water needs.
Some industrial consumers – who accounted for 8 percent of water groundwater consumption in 2011 – have provided examples of more efficient consumption. For example, in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area, it took three engineering interns one summer to find a total of 44 million gallons of potential water efficiencies at three companies, according to the “2015 Water Policy Report.”
Plumbing and water treatment codes could be updated to make recycled water easier to use in industry and agriculture. As an example, Mankato Energy Center reached an agreement with a wastewater treatment plant to use reclaimed water up to four times before it is discharged to the Minnesota River, saving an average of 2.25 billion gallons of groundwater per year.
Eased regulations could save municipally-supplied water as well. The policy report also highlights that rainwater, gray water, stormwater and reclaimed wastewater could all be safely used for flushing toilets, irrigation, washing cars and recharging aquifers.
Minnesota is not yet in a water quantity crisis. But, state agencies are uniformly signaling the early warnings. The sooner that groundwater sustainability awareness and efforts spread, the easier it will be to balance water supply, demand, quality and costs. Proactive efficiency efforts, local controls and statewide measures will have to strengthen before across-the-board regulations become the only option for mitigating the areas of increasing water consumption and decreasing supply.
– An opinion of the ECM Editorial Board. Reactions to this editorial — and to any commentary on these pages – are always welcome. Send to: editor.sun@ecm-inc.com.