Ob Wells

I spent most of last Tuesday in the enjoyable pursuit of data from groundwater observation wells (Obwells for short) scattered around southern Beltrami County (see link for locations of monitored wells and additional background information) . These data are part of a larger enterprise involving the Minnesota DNR, the University of Minnesota and US Geological Survey and they provide an interesting long-term picture of changes in groundwater over time. For those interested in what is happening at a particular location the University of Minnesota has a site that allows you to retrieve data about any particular location.

Not surprisingly, despite our rains of early June, groundwater levels are still rather low throughout our region. Recharge will take several winters with above normal snowfalls since much of the precipitation falling in summer rainfall events is quickly flushed through the system. It will be very interesting to see what happens to groundwater levels in the face of climate change since we are moving ever further into a climate regime in which local evapotranspiration regularly exceeds local precipitation. This is especially intriguing since water from our region drains south to the Gulf of Mexico, north to Hudson's Bay, and east to the Great Lakes and the ultimately to the north Atlantic (water levels in Lake Superior already at record lows).