Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to...?

Today the weather is a vast improvement over last week's heat and humidity. Even the hearty breeze from the West helps blow away some of the deer flies and pushes our excess moisture Eastward and up into the atmosphere.

Grand Marais harbor and Lake Superior

Photo by J. Harrington

Over the past several months, we've noticed several reports that summarize the perspectives of Minnesotans regarding the status of our water quality. Our review of those reports leads us to believe too many Minnesotans must not be paying very much attention, for we find a huge gap between the perspectives described and the reality of the resource, according to the official reports on impaired waters in Minnesota.

Minnesota's impaired waters (red) (source, MnPCA)

Minnesota Public Radio, back in April 2018, released Opinions Regarding Minnesota’s Water Resources, which includes the finding "Of note, more Minnesotans said we were on the right track for providing safe drinking water (85%) and protecting lakes and rivers (80%) than for any other topic asked." We are unable to reconcile that finding with the fact that "Every two years, MPCA creates a list of impaired waters that do not meet water quality standards. Monitoring suggests that about 40% of Minnesota's lakes and streams are impaired for conventional pollutants."

The McKnight Foundation more recently (July 2018) published The State of Minnesota’s Water 
An Evaluation of Stakeholder Perspectives on Water Priorities. "No respondents working outside of water and environment topics cited water or the environment as the most important policy topic facing Minnesota today." This raises significant concerns since Minnesota's celebration of Water Action Year ended slightly more than a year ago.

The McKnight report found:

Overall, the stakeholders did not rate Minnesota’s water quality favorably. However, their knowledge of water issues and the overall rating of Minnesota’s water quality were inversely related . The more respondents knew about water quality through working in state or local government, environmental advocacy, or even working in southern Minnesota communities generally, the lower they rated Minnesota’s water quality. Respondents in regions and sectors less directly tied to water quality debates rated the state’s water quality much higher.

That assessment reflects MPR's report that Minnesotans in general believe (albeit erroneously) the state is on the "right track" to protect our waters.

We would like to respectfully suggest that Minnesota, and the rest of the country (world?), could be well served by emulating the example recently set by Paul Hawken's Project Drawdown, 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming.

Project Drawdown is the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. Our organization did not make or devise the plan—we found the plan because it already exists. We gathered a qualified and diverse group of researchers from around the world to identify, research, and model the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change. What was uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global warming within thirty years. It shows that humanity has the means at hand. Nothing new needs to be invented. The solutions are in place and in action. Our work is to accelerate the knowledge and growth of what is possible. We chose the name Drawdown because if we do not name the goal, we are unlikely to achieve it.

As with many of the issues and concerns facing us, our efforts and approaches are too fragmented, poorly tested, and/or documented, and lack a systematic approach (see Donella Meadows Dancing with Systems). We are running out of time and resources to continue to be ineffective in our actions to respond to problems we have created for ourselves. This also applies to the need to correct the problems created and exacerbated by the current national regime, the one with increasingly diminishing claims to legitimacy.

What the Water Knows

Sam Hamill- 2018

What the mouth sings, the soul must learn to forgive.
A rat’s as moral as a monk in the eyes of the real world.
Still, the heart is a river
pouring from itself, a river that cannot be crossed.

It opens on a bay
and turns back upon itself as the tide come sin,
it carries the cry of the loon and the salts
of the unutterably human.

A distant eagle enters the mouth of a river
salmon no longer run and his wide wings glide
upstream until he disappears
into the nothing from which he came. Only the thought remains.

Lacking the eagle’s cunning or the wisdom of the sparrow,
where shall I turn, drowning in sorrow?
Who will know what the trees know, the spidery patience
of young maple or what the willows confess?

Let me be water. The heart pours out in waves.
Listen to what the water says.
Wind, be a friend.
There’s nothing I couldn’t forgive.

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