With surface waters threatening to flood in Minnesota, a west central Minnesota county's concerns about water use might seem an oddity. But as Tom Cherveny reports in Swift County sees increasing groundwater demands, it's no trivial pursuit.
Cherveny writes:
Current trends point to the potential for conflicts. The water level in a monitoring well in the city of Benson has declined by about 15 feet since the early 1990s. It's located in the middle aquifer, the largest of the aquifers available to the community. Increased demand on that aquifer by new users led the city of Benson to develop a third and deeper well to tap a lower aquifer for additional water about 10 years ago.
Other monitoring wells around the county all show downward trend lines as well. None has remained flat, according to Gieseke.
"It's not an emergency, but it is concerning," Anne Hall, a DNR hydrologist, told the audience. ...
[Tim] Gieseke said the DNR is encouraging the formation of what it calls Community-based Aquifer Management Partnerships. The goal is to bring elected officials and water users together to jointly manage groundwater usage before conflicts occur.
The increased demand comes from a variety of users. Irrigation on farmlands has been growing, and represents the largest use of groundwater in the Benson area.
The county has seen the arrival of large dairies in recent years. Benson also has seen large industrial users — including the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company and, until recently, the Fibrominn power plant — tap into aquifers serving the community.
Much of the decline in aquifers can be attributed to the increased usage. It was also asked whether increased subsurface drainage on farmlands is diverting water that would otherwise help recharge the aquifers. Hall said a white paper by the Minnesota Groundwater Association determined that research is needed to answer that question.
To help readers envision the impact of those dairies, for example, we need only turn to the 2017 Tribune article, Riverview plans fifth large dairy west of Willmar:
Riverview Dairy LLP of Morris is planning to develop a fifth large dairy farm in the state Highway 40 corridor west of Willmar. ...
It will hold 9,500 animal units of Jersey cows in a free stall barn facility, according to the environmental assessment worksheet. ...
The dairy will develop wells to provide 120 million gallons of water per year.
Riverview Dairy operates two other large dairies in Swift County, the East Dublin (about 3,953 cows) and West Dublin (about 8,890 cows) operations.
A 2002 expansion Environmental Assessment Worksheet for the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company plant noted that water usage would be 165 million gallons of water per year.
We'll keep an eye out to see what the task force Cherveny reports the county is forming comes up with.
Graph: The increased usage of groundwater in the Benson area has resulted in a corresponding decline in groundwater levels, as shown by this graph from a monitoring well in Benson. Submitted image in the West Central Tribune.
If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
Comments