Conserving Water At The Best Waterparks In Minnesota

As the weather warms in Minnesota, you might be interested in visiting a water park. Popular public opinion is that water parks are a vast waste of water, but the reality is that water parks take water conservation very seriously.

Here are a few great water parks to visit in Minnesota this summer!

Three Bears Water Park

An indoor water park like Three Bears Water Park in Brainerd is a great choice. Without humidity, evaporation, and other environmental factors that prevent the water park’s efficiency, indoor water parks can recycle approximately 98% of their water! This particular water park is especially great for younger children with 3 slides that they can ride themselves!

As part of Holiday Inn Express, you can even make a weekend of it staying overnight and enjoying complimentary breakfast.

Bunker Beach Water Park

Voted the best water park in Minnesota by WCCO in 2017, Bunker Beach Water Park in Coon Rapids features unique experiences to interact with water. The huge pool creates 3-foot waves to make you feel like you are in the ocean! They also have six slides and multiple pools among their numerous attractions.

A large water park like Bunker Beach can accommodate thousands on visitors on a hot day. A water park option prevents consumption from all those guests who might otherwise be cooling off in their backyard pools and sprinklers.

Redwood Falls Aquatic Center

If you are in the southwest part of the state, visit the highly reviewed Redwood Falls Aquatic Center. This low-key water park is extremely family friendly and has reasonably priced daily rates. Cool off on their zero-depth entry pool, plunge and diving areas, as well as large lap pools. A well-maintained park like this one conserves water by reducing splash out and designing efficient deck wash down. Read about industry innovations for water park filters and recycling water here.


Enjoy your summer days splashing at the water park without the worry of water consumption. While water parks might use a lot of water to initially fill, their dedication to the recycling of water and the masses they serve make it worth it!

For more information about water conservation - and the best ways to cool off this summer - visit the AWWA Minnesota section on Facebook.

Water Conservation Tips for the Winter

While we typically think of water conservation during the hot and arid months of summer, water conservation is an important issue all year round. Take a glance below to see how you can conserve water at home in the colder months.

Be Careful with the flushes

Flushing toilets can use upwards of two gallons per flush, and even more with older toilet bowl models. Additionally, check your toilet for leaks. Leaking toilets can waste hundreds of gallons a day. Check for leaks by dropping food coloring into the toilet tank. You will be able to tell if a leak is present if you see coloring in the bowl after a few minutes. If it is in your budget, consider upgrading your toilet to a low-flush, higher efficiency toilet.

Turn the Faucet Off

Easier in theory than in practice, the small act of turning the faucet off when not in use will make a big impact. Turn the sink off as you brush your teeth. Keep the faucet off when you shave. Don’t leave the tap running while you wash the dishes. Use a dishwasher and washing machine that will recycle water and only use them when they are full. These simple adjustments will provide a big impact on your water bill.

Ready the Pipes

Cracked and burst pipes can cost a fortune. Winterize your pipes to prevent paying astronomical water and plumbing repair bills. Take some precaution to protect your pipes indoors and outdoors. For indoor pipes, insulate them so they stay warmer, heat more quickly, and are less likely to leak. Wrap outdoor pipes as well in order to protect them from unforgiving winter air. Additionally, ensure that you know what to do in the event of a water pipe burst. Locate the shut-off valve in your home in case your pipes do burst to prevent flooding.

Take a Second Look at Your Shower

Water used in the shower can account for a big portion of your water bill. Low-flow showerheads can make a big difference when it comes to water conservation. In fact, it can save you thousands of gallons of water and hundreds of dollars a year. While you shop for a new showerhead, consider decreasing the amount of time you spend in the shower. Long, languid showers will run up your monthly bills and dry out your skin.

Another trick you can do is to collect water while you run the shower and wait for it to heat up. Even if you take short showers, any water you use waiting for the temperature to be just right is clean water going right down the drain. A bucket of water collected from your shower can be used to water your plants, feed your pets, cook with, mop the floor, and much more. It’s clean and you pay for it, why not use it?

Water conservation isn’t a seasonal responsibility. You can easily implement good water habits year-round with a little extra effort. For more ways that you can conserve water throughout the year, visit the Minnesota section of the American Water Works Association today.

How to Purify Water While Camping

When camping, one of the most important items of need is access or the ability to obtain clean water. It will be your source of hydration, energy, and sustenance. While bottled water is convenient, it can add a lot of weight to your camping gear haul, not to mention the burden on the environment caused by producing bottled water. Learning to find a source and purify water when camping can eliminate a few gallons from your camping gear and can help eliminate plastic waste from the environment. And it’s easy to learn!

Purifying your own drinking water is simple, inexpensive, and, most importantly, ensures a safe and sanitary source of drinking water. Consider the following methods when purifying water while camping:

Finding a Source

If you are camping in a state park or campground, there will likely be a supply of water nearby, such as a well or spout in which you can find water. From there, filtering isn’t usually an issue, unless you are worried about taste. To find a smart supply of water in more rugged terrain, look for clear, flowing streams. Lake and pond water are stagnant and more likely to hold contaminants and bacteria. Collecting condensation from tree branches and leaves can be effective, but takes a lot of patience. Treated snow and ice are smart options for when you are winter camping.

Portable Filters

Portable water filters can be an effective, albeit more expensive option for purification. With effective maintenance, portable water filters are compact and easy to use and there is a variety of options on the market. Look for filters equipped with either carbon or ceramic filters or look for filters that treat water with iodine or other chemicals to kill viruses.

One option is the SteriPEN - a small, battery-powered device that emits UV light and destroys bacteria. All you need to do is dip the pen into your water bottle and stir for about a minute. The newer version of the SteriPEN comes in an even smaller, more travel-friendly design and includes a micro USB charging port, though it boasts 40 purifications between charges.

Boiling

Boiling water can be the most effective way to purify water. In small batches, bring water to a rolling boil for at least five minutes to kill any microorganisms existing in the water. Wait for the water to cool, and remember that this method does not remove non-living contaminants, so you may need to filter it slightly beforehand. Boiling water is often the easiest for large groups like families and requires just a boiling pot over a campfire.

Image by Martin Cathrae via Flickr

Iodine Treatment

Another simple method for water purification is iodine treatment. It is often considered the most effective at killing most pathogens, although it will not remove sediment. Coming in the form of iodine tablets, crystals or liquid iodine, this is a process that is easy, inexpensive, and lightweight. Dissolve iodine in water while stirring constantly for at least 30 minutes. Use five drops of liquid 2% iodine for every quart of water and follow the manufacturer's details for iodine crystals and tablets. The iodine can leave a slight aftertaste, but neutralizing tablets are also available and effectively counteract the aftertaste.

When camping, water will be your biggest asset in keeping you energized, regulating body temperature, and in enhancing your physical performance. Make sure to keep a steady supply of water with you at all times and challenge yourself to learn how to purify water in the event of camping emergencies.

For more information on water conservation and protecting our resources, visit our website.

Tips to Keep Your Drinking Water Safe

National Drinking Water Week will take place May 1st – May 7th. The American Water Works Association and its members have celebrated Drinking Water Week for more than 35 years. Although the United States has one of the safest drinking water supplies in the world, the recent drinking water stories from Flint, Michigan have caused concern about the safety of their water. Though it remains very unlikely that Minnesota will see a similar problem, there are a few things you can do to ensure that your home drinking water is safe.

Education is the Key

Public water suppliers provide an annual water report called the Consumer Confidence Report. It has the most current testing data and outlines where your tap water comes from and if it is in compliance with EPA regulations. If you have questions, contact your water supplier. They are the best resource to help educate you on what you can do to ensure your tap water is safe.

Protecting Yourself from Lead

If you live in an older home, or your plumbing is out of date, there may be some risk of consuming small amounts of lead. “If you have a lead pipe in front of your house, if you were in my family, I would tell you to never, ever drink that water without filtering it,” says Marc Edwards, Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineer. There are filtering systems on the market that tackle your entire house, but experts say your best defense takes place at the sink. Water filtered through a whole-house filtration system still needs to travel through pipes (possibly lead pipes) to reach your faucet. This is why it is best to invest in a filtration system at your kitchen sink. You don’t need to worry about showering in water. “There’s no harm; it doesn’t go in through your skin,” Edwards says.

Private Wells

Public water sources are regulated and tested often, but private wells are the responsibility of the homeowner. If you get your drinking water from a private well, you should: ● Test your water frequently - at least once a year. Be sure to use a state certified laboratory. You may want to test more often if someone in your household is pregnant or nursing, someone becomes ill, you notice a difference in taste or smell, or you replace any part of your well system. ● Make sure to maintain your well and the related equipment. Well installers will service your equipment to ensure it is operating properly. ● Become educated on the aquifer and any well-head protection efforts that are implemented to ensure it remains a safe supplier of your water.

Purifying Your Water

What happens if you are alerted that your home tap water isn’t safe? Well, (pun intended) there are a few steps you can take to make absolutely sure it is safe to drink. Passing water through a muslin cloth or a home treatment device will help remove most impurities, but can still leave you vulnerable to bacteria and viruses. The best way to remove all impurities is to boil it - bring the water to a rolling boil, and continue for 1-2 minutes.

Containers Make a Difference

With so many water containers on the market today, don’t store your water in recycled containers from your home, like old milk jugs or juice containers - sugars and milk proteins settle at the bottom of these bottles and can cause bacterial growth. Start with a clean, NEW container to ensure the cleanest water. Thanks to the billions of dollars invested in water systems across the country, water contamination in the United States is, thankfully, a very rare occurrence. Recent news stories have caused concern, but there is little reason to fear a problem in your tap water. To keep your mind at ease, follow the above tips and you will no doubt have the safest drinking water possible. Happy Drinking Water Week from Minnesota AWWA.

One Less Bottle a Day

As the earth’s residents, we need to protect the planet whenever possible. One way we can do this is in being mindful of the ways we consume the most abundant liquid on earth - water. Reusable water bottles are better for the environment, more cost-efficient, and take up less space in landfills. With thousands of options available, it may seem like there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to a reusable water bottle, though we’ve made up a simple guide to help you choose.

One of the basic things to look out for is whether or not the bottle is BPA free, which usually applies to plastic bottles bought in bulk, not reusable water bottles. BPA (bisphenol A) is a chemical that can leak from the plastic bottle into your water or into the ground after being tossed into a landfill. For reusable bottles, there are a few material options to choose from: plastic, stainless steel, and glass are the most common.

Plastic Bottles

You can purchase both hard plastic and soft plastic bottles; soft plastic bottles can conveniently collapse and be stored in your bag, whereas it is easier to drink from hard plastic bottles. In hard plastic, the  24-ounce Thermos Nissan Intak Hydration Water Bottle is a great size for most reusable water drinkers and is leak-proof.

If you are looking for a collapsible bottle for traveling (or just for the convenience), the Vapur Element Bottle is a great option. This bottle has 4.5 stars from 706 reviews on Amazon, so you are likely to find that Vapur Element is the bottle for you.

Stainless Steel Bottles

Stainless steel bottles are usually the go-to bottles for cleanliness, durability, and use. However, some find that the taste is a bit tainted from the stainless steel material. Water will taste a little different depending on what material you drink from. It basically comes down to a personal preference, and you really won’t know what you like until you try them. The highest rated stainless steel bottle is the Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Bottle with Loop Cap, which looks like the most basic of water bottles, but this tried and true bottle is a winner.

Glass Bottles

Possibly considered the best bottle for taste preference is the glass water bottle. We are most accustomed to drinking from glass. However, the downfalls are the weight of the bottle and the durability of the glass. Glass bottles are often not allowed in gyms because they can shatter. Consider where you will be using your bottle most often and let that help you decide the best material for you. One of the best glass bottles is the Lifefactory 22-Ounce Beverage Bottle from Amazon.com. The thin plastic shell will help protect from bumps and small drops and large opening allows for easy cleaning.

There are a ton of options available on the market. You can customize your bottle to fit your personality, your workspace, your travel habits - almost anything! We’re here to aid you in choosing the correct reusable bottle for your lifestyle. If you have additional questions regarding reusable bottles, ask with the hashtag #DrinkTap, like Minnesota AWWA on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Best of the Season: Winter Activities in Minnesota

Winter activities: they’re not for the faint of heart. Let’s be honest for a minute - we live in Minnesota - yes, the initial shock of winter takes some getting used to, but we aren’t going to spend almost half of the year indoors! Check out some of the best outdoor activities Minnesota has to offer this winter:

Served on the Rocks at an Ice Bar

What better way to enjoy a nice cold beer than by sitting on a big hunk of ice? Minnesota features ice bars across the state. The SocialICE in Rochester has icy signature drinks, twelve-foot artistic designed ice bars, an ice sculpture garden, and more. Make sure you take a trip to Rochester February 18th, 19th, and 20th for food, music, and a fabulous ice bar.

Ice Sculptures

Minnesotans pride themselves on their talent on the ice, off the ice, and with the ice. One of the state’s most time-honored traditions involves creative ice sculptures displays across the state. Eden Prairie has a beautiful and dazzling display of Ice Castles, which opened January 23rd and run through the end of February. The Ice Castles display is an excellent place to take a date or to set out on a family excursion.

Challenge Yourself

With extreme temperatures, there are bound to be extreme winter activities and challenges. Take Minnesota’s all-season sport of fishing out onto the ice this year. There are ice fishing contests and competitions across the state. Look for a location near you with the MNDNR. For the adrenaline junkies, the Minnesota Polar Bear Plunge is an excellent way of raising money for Special Olympics Minnesota athletes. There are plenty of locations and dates across the state that you can participate in for an extreme rush and good cause.

The Classics

With so many events to enjoy, make sure not to forget the classic winter activities. Go skiing and snowboarding at Powder Ridge, Lutsen Mountains, or Blackjack and Indianhead Mountain. Engage with the serenity of winter forests by snowshoeing with friends on a nighttime trail. Embrace your inner kid by grabbing a sled or snow tube and racing down a snow-covered hill. Try and see how many lakes you can go ice skating around. Minneapolis alone has two indoor rinks and 47 outdoor rinks to offer.

For more winter activity ideas, visit the DNR Winter Activities Guide. Embrace all that Minnesota has to offer and aim to fill this winter with exciting experiences and heart-warming memories.

5 Reasons to Drink Tap Instead of Bottled Water

Agua, wasser, eau, water- It doesn’t matter where you come from or which language you speak, we all know that our bodies need water! We grow up being told the “8x8 rule”- drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day- to properly hydrate our bodies. The dilemma is, have you ever really thought much about the water you’re drinking?

It may sound silly at first and you're probably thinking “Water is WATER- no calories, no fat, no sodium…” but would you believe that there is a big difference economically, nutritionally, and environmentally between tap and bottled water? Here are 5 reasons why you should switch to tap water:

Grab the Microscope
With the FDA regularly testing, you can always be sure that you water is clean of E. coli and bacteria. Bottled water companies do not have to follow these protocols, so you better keep a microscope nearby if you choose to drink bottled.

Another Money Saver
Eating at home, using coupons, and turning lights off are all effective ways to save money, but did you know you could save over $250 a year by eliminating bottled water use? Check out the Bottled Water Cost Calculator and see how much money you could save by switching to tap.

No Bottle, No Problem
Drinking tap water is much more convenient than bottled. Instead of having to first purchase from a store, haul into your home, and then unpack your water into the fridge, all you have to do is grab a glass, turn on a faucet, and voila… water!

Local Support
Increasing your tap water intake will slightly bring up your water bill (still MUCH less than buying bottled), but paying your local water bill helps support the economic circulation in your area, not a giant bottling corporation.

Know What You Are Drinking
With tap, you understand exactly what you are getting in your glass. Bottled water companies do not have to disclose where the water comes from, how it is purified, or what chemicals exist on the bottle. Without these factors, how can customers be sure of what they are putting into their bodies?

In 2009, a large city in Australia became the first city in the World to completely ban the use of bottled water. Now, many other large cities like San Francisco and Chicago are implementing their own rules against bottled water as well. The trend of #DrinkTap is growing globally. The positives of drinking tap water continue to outweigh the negatives… Will you make the switch?

The People Behind The Water

Holidays are all about spending time with family and friends -- whether it's Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or other holidays. It often doesn't reveal the work on unsung staff working quietly without fanfare to make sure that water arrives without interruption to your house. While families gather together for holiday festivities, the person making sure that there is water in the nearby water tank is alone in the pumping room, overseeing the pumps that ensure water pressure and water availability to hundreds of thousands of people. In the cold and snowy mornings of winter, a water main breaks, threatening to leave a block of homes without water for the day. Water crews leave the warmth of their family homes to go tend to the break and repair it with haste to allow other families to continue on with their day, uninterrupted.

         

Without these men and women, the simple act of turning on the faucet to pour water over the potatoes to help make a holiday meal would never happen. The dishes would go unwashed, the toilets wouldn't flush and the holiday for many would be ruined without their hard work.

How many other people do you know working on during the holidays? Probably a lot, and most of the general public probably doesn’t realize it. We are a 24/7 operation so there are always three Water Treatment and three Distribution employees on duty to operate the treatment plant and to respond to any reported field events that may occur.  This is not unique to a certain holiday season but actually occurs on every federal holiday.  These employees put their chosen profession ahead of other interests as 417,000 people are relying on them to ensure that water service is uninterrupted and any field needs are responded to in a timely manner. We can’t thank all of our employees enough for all of their work, to name a few positions:

Water Treatment Operator

Many water treatment facilities are staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. A Water Treatment Operator will monitor the water quality throughout the treatment processes and make changes to ensure both quality and quantity meets the expectations of the community.

Water Analyst/Chemist

Incoming water quality changes, process equipment changes and Safe Drinking Water Act testing requirements don’t take weekends and Holidays off. Water Analysts ensure regulatory compliance is met at all times.

Utility Service Operator
Water must reach our homes, restaurants, industries and businesses for use. Maintenance and operation of the water distribution system (water mains, hydrants, water pumping stations, water towers) is required to make sure water leaving the water treatment facility reaches the customer safely and reliably.

Utilities Maintenance Mechanic

Effective preventative maintenance ensures that water systems perform effectively. When equipment is in need of emergency repair or scheduling becomes an issue, a Utilities Maintenance Mechanic role is to make sure water is available around the clock.

Customer Service Employees

Have a problem with the water entering your home? Chances are a call to your local utility will be answered by a customer service employee. Customer service is unique and important to each utility. The Water System Never Sleeps.

 

There are many times where our employees have stopped their holiday celebrations with family to help keep your special day going. Steve Schneider, General Manager of St. Paul Regional Water Services, remembers a time when he worked during Christmas:

I personally remember a broken water main in the City of Oakdale that occurred right outside the main driveway to the church I was attending. The work to repair the main was commenced after the completion of the 10:30 PM service on Christmas Eve and was completed in time for the 7:00 AM service on Christmas morning. I am sure there were some of our employees that were inexplicably tired during the day on that December 25th

We can’t begin to thank everyone of our employees enough for all of their work and contributions throughout the years. So the next time you turn on your water faucet think of the men and women, often working alone or in the cold on holidays, who make your water possible. Remember all the professions working so you can have what you have; there are more than you know!