What is your community’s most significant water problem?

White Bear Lake
Docks extend into White Bear Lake, where water levels have steadily decreased over the last decade, in White Bear Lake, Minn. September, 2011. Jeffrey Thompson / MPR News

"Even in the land of 10,000 lakes, water is no longer unlimited. Lakes shrink, groundwater drops, wells go dry or get contaminated. Some cities have to look harder for good municipal water or pay more to treat it. Twenty years ago these were isolated problems. But three-quarters of Minnesota’s residents get their water from aquifer-tapping wells, and today parts of the state seem to be on a path that is not sustainable," writes MPR News editor Dave Peters.

Peters directs the Ground Level project and is seeking the insights of Minnesota residents as a way to inform a series of reports on groundwater. Weigh in here.

“Unprecedented water use conflicts are arising between businesses, towns, and residents,” the Department of Natural Resources said in October in a draft plan for dealing with groundwater. Business operations are at risk; recreation is being affected, it said.

“Aquifers are being depleted; lakes, streams and wetlands are being damaged and in some areas, groundwater levels have declined by as much as 40 feet, roughly one foot each year, since the 1970s,” a Metropolitan Council official said recently.

Today's Question: What is your community's most significant water problem?

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