This is the a graphical depiction of the Hydrologic Cycle. It hasn’t been working this way in Minnesota this summer. We need it to. Our water plant is working at full capacity right now and it’s just able to keep up with demand. It’s a struggle, but we’re doing our best with what we’ve got. KARE-11 did a short TV news story on our water struggles. You can see it at this link: KARE-11.com
But not everyone agrees believes that the water shortageis real. This is the text of an email that I received yesterday:
“Why can’t we take steps to increase the amount of water available to pump
per day? Bloomington has no watering restrictions because they got out front
of the problem and secured enough water. We do not have to have watering restrictions year after year if the proper planning is put in place. I think the Community Center should be run by a private (for profit) company – supplying water is a service that should be managed by the city.
You should increase our water supply instead of advertising false shortages.”
Bloomington has a water connection to the Minneapolis Water system, which uses primarily river water. Our elected and appointed leaders in Eden Prairie in the past looked at the possibility of using Minnesota River water as a water source but chose not to do that for many reasons. Many good reasons actually. The water that feeds our water system is drawn from deep wells. It is high quality and requires less treatment than drawing water out of a river that has had more than its share of water quality problems over the years.
Eden Prairie’s ability to take water out of the earth is restricted by the state government. We have a total number of gallons that we may not exceed on an annual basis. It’s called an Appropriation Permit and it’s issued by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). We are pumping as much water out of the earth, into our water treatment plant and then out to our residents as we are permitted to by the state. We are currently seeking permission from the DNR to drill more wells and to pump more water. The state will consider our request and get back to us.
Among the many criteria they will use to judge the advisability of our request is our current conservation program. Water is a precious natural resource, even in Minnesota. The DNR wants to make sure that we really need the extra water to serve our needs – not just our wants. Is a lush green lawn a want or a need? What do you think?
The City currently produces enough water to meet the residential and commercial needs for our City. During the winter months, when there is no outdoor watering going on, Eden Prairie consumes an average of 6,000,000 gallons of water/day. Today, August 3, 2007, Eden Prairie will consumer about 23,000,000 gallons of water. The only difference between these two consumption numbers is that the 16,000,000 additional gallons of water consumed today will be spread on lawns and outdoor landscape materials, and not consumed by people or used by industry.
Should feeding this demand differential be a priority for the City? Should it be a priority for the DNR? We’ll soon know the answer to that question.
