Freshwater Society

The Minnesota Department of Health has established the Drinking Water Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) program,  funded by the Clean Water Fund. CEC is a proactive program to protect drinking water by identifying contaminants of emerging concern that have the potential to occur in Minnesota drinking water sources, investigating the potential for human exposure to these contaminants, and developing guidance values, as applicable.

Contact the Health Department to learn more about the effort and find opportunities to participate in it.

Zachary Coats

A 5-year-old environmentalist and lemonade entrepreneur from South Minneapolis has become one of the latest financial supporters of the Freshwater Society.

Zachary Coats donated $34, part of the proceeds from a lemonade stand he operated May 2, at Minneapolis' May Day Parade. He set up the stand as part of Lemonade Day, a nationwide, Texas-based initiative aimed at teaching youngsters about entrepreneurial skills.

Why did Zachary, who will start kindergarten this fall, contribute to the Freshwater Society?

"Ever since he was a little boy, he has been interested in water and oceans and fish," said his mother, Terrie Coats. "His first word when was a little boy was 'fish.' He's very passionate about the environment and water conservation - even at 5."

Freshwater Board Chair Blyth Brookman, Dick Gray and Marion Downs

Dick Gray, the principal founder of the Freshwater Society, was honored June 3 at a reception held at the Gray Freshwater Center, the laboratory he helped build on the shore of Lake Minnetonka.

About 60 friends of Gray and the Freshwater Society toasted his lifetime devotion to conserving and protecting water in a gathering co-hosted by the Society and the Parley Lake Winery of Waconia.

The wine in the glasses raised in Gray's honor was Kay Gray white wine, made from a variety of grape named for his late wife.

In the late 1970s, Dick Gray supported the work of 

Six students from five high schools across Minnesota won $500 scholarships on May 5 in the Freshwater Society's 6^th annual Water is Life art contest.

	Winners, from left: Brandon Cole, Ally Ede, Hannah Ehli, Shelby Heintz, Christine Hofschulte. Not present for photo: Rachel Lash.

The winners were chosen from 32 finalists, who had emerged from a field of more than 250 artists from more than 80 schools. Each entry was accompanied by a statement about how the artist's work represented the value of water or the threats that water faces in today's world.

The winners' works will be displayed over the next year in a number of venues,  including the Minnesota state Capitol.

"Don't walk out of here tonight and say 'That was an interesting lecture,'" documentary film producer Hedrick Smith told a crowd of environmentalists on April 27 in St. Paul.

Instead, Smith urged his audience to "enlarge our perimeter, increase the size of our congregation" and convince friends and neighbors that America's lakes and rivers still face significant pollution threats and that political pressure can get something done about the pollution.