PFCs from 3M: an ongoing source of debate by Anna Pratt
Through the 1970s, the 3M company dumped PFC wastes into local landfills, as was conventional and legal back then. From there, some PFCs seeped into groundwater, migrating into municipal and private wells in Lake Elmo, Oakdale, Cottage Grove and Woodbury.
Measuring water quality in Minneapolis, St. Paul lakes by Anna Pratt
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is conducting an extensive study of fish and sediment samples from about 30 lakes in the Twin Cities, plus others across the state, to find out whether or not some types of pollutants called “perfluorochemicals” (PFCs) are a widespread urban phenomenon.
Twin Cities water: good to the last drop? by Rich Broderick
Though backup water is available if needed from the Rice Creek basin and a series of wells located along the route of the Lake Vadnais conduit, the Mississippi River, which is to say the Upper Mississippi watershed, is responsible for supplying St. Paul and several surrounding suburbs with their daily ration of water, some 46 million gallons per day on average, a total that has actually dropped slightly in the past several years.
Drinking across the river in Minneapolis by Rich Broderick
Upstream from St. Paul, the Minneapolis Water Works is engaged in an even more expensive capital investment. The utility, which also draws its water from the Mississippi, supplies water for Minneapolis and seven suburbs. It recently opened a new ultrafiltration plant in Columbia Heights capable of processing between 40 million and 75 million gallons a day,.
Water as an economic resource by Rich Broderick
In the decades ahead, fresh water is expected to become oil’s successor as the next prize in the world’s resource wars, especially if the consequences of Global Warming, such as increased desertification and longer heat waves, come true.
Savage water: a suburban study by Rich Broderick
An example of how complicated source protection and water supply planning is in an urban area like the metro region can be seen in the recent experience of just one Twin Cities suburb: the City of Savage.
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