Freshwater Society

Cassandra McKinney

More than 160 people from throughout the Midwest attended the Freshwater Society's 9th Annual Road Salt Symposium on Feb. 3 in Brooklyn Center. The attendees -- ranging from transporation workers, to researchers, to watershed district administrators -- learned about, and discussed, the latest research on chloride pollution in lakes, rivers and groundwater.

Experts also described the newest innovations in equipment, chemical alternatives and non-chemical alternatives to road salt that will decrease pollution.

One of the featured speakers, Cassandra McKinney, water resources manager for McHenry County, IL spoke about the impact chlorides from road salt have had on her region's groundwater, which is the primary source for drinking water in the area. She described policies she developed for the county to mitigate these impacts. Click for a complete listing of speakers and downloadable pdfs of presentations.

Polar explorer Will Steger, speaking Jan. 26

Steger calls for action to halt global warming

The Earth and the humans and other animals who live on it are like a heart patient with high cholesterol, polar explorer Will Steger told about 200 people who crowded into the Gray Freshwater Center on Jan. 26 for a lecture on climate change.

The cholesterol, Steger said, is the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are accumulating in the atmosphere and creating global warming. Some people still question the science of climate change, but Steger said he has seen evidence of it first-hand in his travels - collapsing ice shelves in Antarctica and rotting ice in the Arctic Ocean.

Unless human beings reduce their use fossil fuels and reduce the concentrations of those gases, they risk catastrophic consequences, he said.

Steger, whose lecture was part of a kick-off for the Freshwater Society's 2010 - The Year of Water, showed slides and video of areas of Antarctic ice that he had spent 15 days crossing by dogsled that are now open sea.

To view a 75-minute video of Steger's presentation, click here.

In the Arctic, each increase in the temperature melts permafrost, releasing methane - a particularly potent greenhouse gas - and the methane then increases the warming, he said. "It's incredible the changes each year in the Arctic," he said.

Steger  urged  the crowd to work to reduce the United States' reliance on fossil fuels. And he urged those in attendance to view U.S. dependence on coal and petroleum, not just as a climate problem, but as economic  and national security problems.

Steger, relating evidence of climate change

2010 - The Year of Water officially begins
Students timing their showers and counting loads of laundry.  Volunteers fighting pollution of lakes and rivers by cleaning leaves from storm sewers. National experts delivering provocative lectures on water and the environment. Throughout 2010, the Freshwater Society - with partners throughout Minnesota - will celebrate the value of water and take concrete actions to conserve, protect and restore water resources.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty issued a proclamation in honor of the 2010 celebration, naming Jan. 26 as Water Resources Day in Minnesota.

A video presentation previewing the events and programs for 2010 - The Year of Water can be viewed here.

Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona law professor who recently has published a new book, Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It, will deliver a lecture on water on Feb. 22 as part of the Year of Water celebration.

To read more about activities planned for 2010 - The Year of Water in Facets of Freshwater, the Freshwater Society's newsletter, click here.

Other articles from the newsletter include:

• An interview with Steger. To view a WCCO-TV interview with Steger, click here.

• An interview with Glennon.

• Freshwater founder Dick Gray writes about the early history of the Freshwater Society.

• Freshwater president Gene Merriam reflects on 2010 - The Year of Water and other Freshwater activities.

• Not everyone knows about it, but the Twin Cities metro area has a 72-mile national park along both banks of the Mississippi River.

• The University of Minnesota Water Resources Center wants to know what you think about the future of our waters. You can fill out an on-line survey and attend public meetings.

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.

Is Minnesota making progress toward cleaning up the 40 percent of its rivers and lakes that suffer from some type of pollution that makes then unfit for swimming or fishing or inhospitable to the aquatic species that live in them?

Are the Legislature and state agencies on the right track toward spending the estimated $3.25 billion that a sales tax increase last year will yield over 25 years for protecting and restoring water?

About 100 people gathered Tuesday, Oct. 20, at a forum to ask, and try to answer, those questions.

The forum was sponsored by the Minnesota Environmental Initiative and hosted by the Freshwater Society at the Gray Freshwater Center in Excelsior. To view participants' presentations, click here.

A major Minnesota research project - paid for by the sales tax increase voters approved last year, and conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and St. Cloud State University - is investigating one of the newest, least understood and most troubling types of water pollution: Endocrine disrupting compounds.

The $896,000 project is sampling water at 22 sewage treatment plants around the state.

A number of studies have shown the compounds "feminize" male fish. Some scientists suspect they also cause human ills such as decreased sperm counts, increased genital and urinary birth defects in boys and increases in obesity, diabetes and testicular cancer.

Follow these links to see a summary of other research on EDCs in Minnesota over the last 15 years and to read an interview with a Minnesota Health Department expert on the compounds and human health. Those articles, and others, appear in the September issue of Facets of Freshwater, the Freshwater Society's quarterly newsletter.

Those other articles include:

• Calendars in the Classroom. About 400 teachers throughout Minnesota are using the Minnesota Environment Weatherguide Calendar to teach science and other subjects to their kindergarten-fifth-grade students. The free curriculum was developed by the Jeffers Foundation in collaboration with the Freshwater Society.
• Gene Merriam. Freshwater Society President Gene Merriam writes about his hopes and concerns about water quality and the 25-year stream of revenue created by passage of a constitutional amendment last year.
• Passwords. Dick Gray, the principal founder of the Freshwater Society, recalls the weather almanac that evolved into the Minnesota Weatherguide Environment Calendar.
• Itasca. The University of Minnesota's Itasca Biological Field Station and Laboratory celebrates its 100th birthday.

Lectures by nine distinguished speakers who spoke at Gustavus Adolphus College's recent Nobel Conference on water, H2O: Uncertain Resource, are available online at the college's web site. To see a list of speakers and view their presentations, click here.