Minutes - Environmental Policy Board - 06/15/2015

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Board Member Valentine stated that the City has a permit for each well. Board Member Bentz stated that the DNR tracks this and the information is on their website. He suggested doing a comparison piece with the wells that are drying up in Southwest Minnesota and California and the consequences. He stated that the neighbors he has talked to want no part of odd/even sprinkling restrictions on rural wells. Board Member Valentine stated that the DNR is under tremendous pressure to limit well drilling and volumes. They have been extremely liberal in the past about approving large user wells, but are now under pressure to limit them and this will eventually impact cities that are drawing on wells now. City Planner Anderson stated that the issue was a big part of the City developing a topsoil requirement. The City was told by the DNR that it needed to start implementing conservation practices right away. He stated that some of the City's watering restriction time limits appear to be more restrictive than other communities. The conversations with the DNR also led the City to do a pilot study of a surface water treatment plant to pull water from the Mississippi River as a potential future drinking water source. This has a huge price tag. He stated there are serious ramifications if we are not cautious about what we do with the ground water that is being used. He stated that he tried to touch on these sorts of implications in the outline and to lay down the foundation of understanding of what ground water is and what happens if we just stay the course. He would wrap up with conservation practices currently in place and what business and residents can do. He stated that he was not looking at developing the consumption comparison as part of the education piece because there is a need to research the feasibility. If it is possible,the results could be put on the website for promotion. Board Member Valentine asked if metering private wells for the purpose of gathering information on usage has ever been brought up by Staff. City Planner Anderson replied that it has not come up to his knowledge. Board Member Valentine stated he felt that eventually this would have to be looked at for purposes of understanding what is happening with the aquifer. Chairperson Stodola expressed his opinion that it comes down to not recharging the aquifers because of the storm water issue. We are sending water into the river by excessive paving and nothing is going back to the aquifers. Board Member Valentine stated we have reduced the recharge and increased the usage. City Planner Anderson spoke about a pyramid document presented at their last meeting that indicated water resources, water supply and then filtered down into subtopics. He stated that the consensus of the Board was to hone in on one topic for education with the understanding that they are all tied together. He stated that there is a generalized outline on storm water education included in the agenda materials. He stated he does think there is a connection between greater impervious area and the declining recharge rate and that the issues are all interconnected. He does not want to lose sight of that and the Board can look at a right time to ramp up the storm water education piece. Environmental Policy Board/June 15, 2015 Page 6 of 9