Agenda - Council - 07/28/2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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98 This article discusses three reasons why water efficiency is a smart investment for both utilities and consumers and not solely a revenue buster as is currently perceived: • Water rates will rise regardless of whether water conservation occurs. • Water efficiency has been proven to actually slow down the increases in consumer rates. Efficiency is often the cheapest source of new supply and can help avoid the expensive costs of adding new storage or treatment capacity. Website Hall, C.W. et al. 1911. Geology and Underground Waters of Minnesota. Work done in cooperation with the Minnesota State Board of Health. United States Geological Survey: Washington D.C. The purpose of this investigation was to determine to the fullest extent practicable the principal facts in regard to the underground waters - their quantity, head, mineral content, sanitary conditions, and their depths below the surface - as well as the best methods for drilling to the them and finishing wells for their utilization and to consider all other questions relating to their recovery for human use. Website Keeler, Bonnie L. and Stephen Polasky, 2014, Land -use change and costs to rural households: a case study in groundwater nitrate contamination. Environmental Research Letters 9 074002. IOP Science Publishing Ltd. Published June 30, 2014.http:// iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/9/7/074002/article Loss of grassland from conversion to agriculture threatens water quality and other valuable ecosystem services. Here we estimate how land -use change affects the probability of groundwater contamination by nitrate in private drinking water wells. We find that conversion of grassland to agriculture from 2007 to 2012 in Southeastern Minnesota is expected to increase the future number of wells exceeding 10 ppm nitrate -nitrogen by 45% (from 888 to 1292 wells). We link outputs of the groundwater well contamination model to cost estimates for well remediation, well replacement, and avoidance behaviors to estimate the potential economic value lost due to nitrate contamination from observed land -use change. We estimate $0.7-12 million in costs (present values over a 20 year horizon) to address the increased risk of nitrate contamination of private wells. Our study demonstrates how biophysical models and economic valuation can be integrated to estimate the welfare consequences of land -use change. Website Kessler, Erich and Lorenz, D.L., 2010, Low -flow characteristics of the Mississippi River upstream from the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, 1932-2007: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigation Report 2010-5163, 14 p The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Council, conducted a study to characterize regional low flows during 1932-2007 in the Mississippi River upstream from the Twin Cities metropolitan area in Minnesota and to describe the low -flow profile of the Mississippi River between the confluence of the Crow River and St. Anthony Falls. Probabilities of extremely low flow were estimated for the streamflow-gaging station (Mississippi River near Anoka) and the coincidence of low -flow periods, defined as the extended periods (at least 7 days) when all the daily flows were less than the 10th percentile of daily mean flows for the entire period of record, at four selected streamflow-gaging stations located upstream. The likelihood of extremely low flows was estimated by a superposition method for the Mississippi River near Anoka that created 5,776 synthetic hydrographs resulting in a minimum synthetic low flow of 398 cubic feet per second at a probability of occurrence of 0.0002 per year. Website Kloprogge, Penny, Eronene van der Sluijs and Arjan Wardekker. 2007. Uncertainty Communication: Issues and Good Practice. Copernicus Institute - Research Institute WATER SUPPLY MASTER PLAN- Draft June 2015