by Sandeep Burman, MGWA President
Greetings! I hope you are all enjoying the long-awaited summer, which finally looks like it is here to stay. It already seems like it has been a long time since we had the 2023 Spring Conference, but it was just a few weeks ago in late April. We had an excellent and trouble-free virtual conference, always something to be thankful for. The presentations really served to highlight how the ground water profession is closely interconnected with many others to ensure the safe and reliable supply of a vital commodity – public drinking water. We enjoyed excellent and informative presentations from a varied group representing the many disciplines that are involved in operating public water supplies. The presentations touched upon the full spectrum of issues, ranging from scientific and technical, engineering, financial and administrative, all the way to public policy and communications that are intrinsic to managing a public water supply. We saw the fascinating ways in which the natural and built environments are interconnected and interact during the processes of obtaining, treating, storing, and distributing drinking water though a public water system. Ground water science and technology is critical to this effort given most public water systems in Minnesota are ground water based. The presentations demonstrated the ‘source to tap’ approach necessary to manage public water systems. Ground water concepts and principles play a dominant role on the ‘source’ end of things, with other disciplines increasingly becoming more important towards the ‘tap’ end of the process.
I had an opportunity to reflect on these complex interactions during a recent trip to the Carolinas, where I came across several different hydrogeologic settings and the implications on how drinking water is managed. From the outer coastal plain sedimentary aquifers where saltwater intrusion is a concern to the high grade metamorphics of the Blue Ridge Mountains where human activities threaten fracture-controlled springs and seeps. A couple of hopefully self-explanatory pictures from that trip are below, from each of those two hydrogeologic settings!
We hope to continue this exploration of the interplay of groundwater and drinking water for the Fall Conference, which is scheduled for November 14th. So go ahead and save the date for what will hopefully be another interesting and informative day. This will be an in-person event, as we will be back at the location of the 2022 Fall Conference, the Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center. The plan for the Fall Conference is to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) through presentations that explore how both the technical and administrative regulation of ground water and drinking water have evolved over the last fifty years. We will also look at regulatory gaps and grey areas that must be navigated for optimal ground water and drinking water protection, as well as at future technical and policy needs that must be accounted for.
Speaking of regulations and policy, I feel that it would be remiss of me to not say a little bit about the impacts of the recently concluded 2023 session of the Minnesota legislature on the ground water and drinking water programs at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), where I work. I am sure that there are significant positive developments for the groundwater programs at the other state agencies as well, and hopefully we will hear about those soon too. The source water protection program at MDH received additional resources from the Clean Water Fund that will allow this work to take the next steps in its continued evolution to meet the needs of the coming decades. Important expansions in MDH’s work on groundwater restoration and protection strategies (GRAPS) and drinking water ambient monitoring program (DWAMP) will now be possible. The work being coordinated by MDH for the development of a State Drinking Water Plan has now been provided with funding. There will undoubtedly be significant ground water implications from this plan, given that ground water is the dominant drinking water source in the state. Continued funding has also been provided for critical initiatives to protect private water supplies that will build on many of the lessons that MDH has learned through public water supply protection efforts. MGWA has been and will continue to be an important partner with MDH in various initiatives for private well protection.
Closer to the ‘tap’ end of things, a truly historic bill has been passed that requires all lead service lines in the state – both publicly and privately owned – be replaced in ten (10) years! This is a remarkable goal and as far as I know it is a national first. Lead in drinking water is yet another example of the intricate relationship between the natural environment and the built environment when it comes to the ‘source’ to ‘tap’ journey that drinking water must undertake. Source waters, including groundwater are not sources of lead. Lead is leached from the water supply distribution infrastructure, mostly the service lines to residences. However, to control this leaching of lead, many public water systems add chemicals like orthophosphates to the water being sent through the distribution system. This is necessary to protect public health but does eventually introduce these chemicals back into the source waters through wastewater discharges. So as lead service lines are removed under this new Minnesota law, the need to add corrosion control chemicals will be reduced and eventually eliminated altogether. This will reduce their introduction into the environment and to source waters. So, this cycle is another way in which the source waters, including ground water, interact with the built infrastructure with both environmental and public health effects. By understanding these interactions, ground water practitioners and other water resources professional can collaborate to better protect both our resources as well as public health. MGWA has and will continue to provide opportunities for such multidisciplinary learning. Thereby helping to foster these much-needed collaborations that are needed to better protect the ever more complex natural and built systems of the future.
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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