By Julia Steenberg, Minnesota Geological Survey
Hello MGWA. Welcome to September. I would like to acknowledge that we are all continuing to navigate the turmoil going on around us and throughout the world on so many different fronts. Please continue to check in and support each other. Thank you to our members who continue to donate their time and energy to keeping this organization going including the Board, Foundation, Education Committee, newsletter team and authors, White Paper Committee and authors, social coordinator, management staff, and the newly formed group of members who are working towards developing plans to address diversity, equity and inclusion. MGWA has stayed busy behind the scenes this year and as always there has been no shortage of things to do.
Most importantly, I am excited to let you know that we have plans in place to give you a virtual fall MGWA conference. This is a first for MGWA, for me and maybe for some of you. The theme will be “Keeping it Clean: Protecting and Managing Groundwater Quality in Urban Environments.” The board and I are committed to bringing our community together in a safe way to learn from this topic and great group of speakers. A huge thank you to those speakers who have already agreed to trying out this new approach with us! We are sticking to our fall conference date of November 12th. Please bear with us, as we work to bring you more details.
In other news, we are anticipating publishing the chloride white paper as the work group puts the finishing touches on it. We look forward to their presentation describing the impacts of stormwater infiltration on chloride in Minnesota groundwater at the conference this fall. The Education Committee has begun collaborations with the Minnesota Water Well Owners Organization to provide education and technical assistance to private well owners. They are looking at integrating efforts with state agencies and local governments to advocate for water well testing, provide guidance on what to test and promote groundwater protection. Plans to address diversity equity and inclusion include developing age- and standards-appropriate groundwater-related outreach materials for use in underserved K-12 schools, particularly those with large minority populations. Building connections with entities that support internship and scholarship opportunities for High School and University students is also a part of this goal. Special thanks to Luke Pickman who hosted MGWA online water trivia for us in July. It was a hit and we hope to do something like that again soon.
I hope you had a great summer and are looking forward to the fall season. A short fieldwork trip over the summer took me to Lac Qui Parle County where we mapped some Precambrian gneiss outcrops in the Minnesota River Valley (photo) and even found some Cretaceous fossil-rich fracture fill within the gneiss.
MGWA is committed to developing a just, equitable, and inclusive groundwater community. Click on the button below to read MGWA’s full diversity statement.
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