The Water Column

The Water Column - Power In June 2024, heavy rains swelled the Blue Earth River until it breached the Rapidan Dam south of Mankato MN.  I watched the drone footage posted on Facebook with fascination.  I had spent many hours as a young boy fishing below that dam. I took my son to those boyhood haunts and we bow fished at the base. We later had a burger and slice of pie at the Dam Store (best dam store by a dam site). I caught a five pound channel catfish the day before my wedding below that dam that was now in peril.  Over the next few days, the raging waters cut away at the bank, eroding the edge and carving a new riverbed. The serpentine change in direction took out The Dam Store owner’s home and eventually the store itself.  Heavy rains in June of this year have flooded farmland and lakeside cabins in Kandiyohi County. Storms on June 13, and another round of rain two weeks later delivered triple the average rainfall for the month. Damage estimates have totaled...

  The Water Column On the last Friday of May, my wife and I began canoeing the Long Prairie River State Water Trail.  We put in on Lake Carlos and paddled to the outlet, portaged the riffle dams and ducked under the first culvert.  We were on our way, riding a river that gently flows through a diverse landscape of shaded woods, farm fields, floodplain meadows and forests.  We logged roughly 24 river miles.  Our goal is to trek all the way to the confluence of the Crow Wing River by summer’s end.  It’s a 94 mile adventure. We were never more than 10 or 20 minutes from home, but felt miles and years away in the wild. Spending an entire day on the river had me thinking about how all this water connects us. It is more than a river - it is a watershed. The Long Prairie River is one of four major watersheds in Douglas County. It covers approximately 565,078 acres (883 square miles) and encompasses parts of Douglas, Otter Tail, Todd, Morrison and Wadena counti...

  The Water Column Think about where water goes next In the last Water Column, we talked about knowing where your water comes from, and what’s in it.  That is important because, as a universal solvent, water picks up more of the materials that it comes in contact with and is changed more by those substances. So today lets think about where the water goes after we use it. The hydrologic cycle makes water a renewable, reusable resource. Water evaporates, becomes vapor, condenses in clouds, falls back as rain, running off into rivers and streams or collecting in ponds, lakes and ground water. The cycle is never ending.  As we use water for various activities, it is changed by materials it comes in contact with.  We pull the plug or flush the toilet and the water we use goes down the drain. Out of sight. Out of mind. We need to think more about where it goes next. That water needs to be treated. Water treatment facilities improve water quality by removing polluta...

"Water water everywhere;  Nor any drop to drink" The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge A reflective sunrise on Lake Miltona We  took a trip to Asheville NC in early December. You may recall this western North Carolina city of just under 100k population was hit hard by hurricane Helene at the end of September. Days of rain had preceded the hurricane winds. Creeks swelled to roaring rivers, rivers overflowed and carried houses away. The area received one to two and a half FEET of rain during the storm. The true power of water was on display.    In the aftermath of the flooding, the infrastructure was laid bare and this area was left without drinkable or useable water. Asheville is served by three separate water treatment plants that operate thousands of miles of pipes to bring water from reservoirs to homes. Two of the three plants sustained damage, including demolished waterlines, and washouts that moved 25 feet of ground. Entire waterways shifted...

  The Water Column  At the end of September, 2024 my wife and I hiked the entire length of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. This UNESCO world heritage trail follows the northern most border of the ancient Roman Empire. Begun in AD122, it was a stone wall stretching across the whole width of the island. It is the largest Roman archeological feature in Britain and was the inspiration for the Wall in George R. R. Martin’s best selling series “A Song of Ice and Fire” dramatized in the TV series “Game of Thrones.” Hiking fifteen to nineteen miles each day, we completed the 85 mile trek in six days. There were moments of awe and wonder each step of the way. When walking next to intact sections of the wall, I would marvel that I was placing my feet in the same places that Roman soldiers and citizens did in the first century. I was walking in the “old world” touching stones that had been placed almost two thousand years ago. Standing amongst the ruins of forts and castles where...