On April 7, 2020, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners will consider a resolution calling for a public hearing regarding a proposed 1-year moratorium on new wells that would extract large quantities of groundwater. The moratorium would prohibit "the construction on new wells estimated to use a water volume greater than 10,000 gallons per day or 1,000,000 gallons per year for the following proposed water uses:
• Commercial/Industrial Water Supply
• Other Water Supply
• Agriculture/Food Processing"
If the resolution is approved, the hearing will be held at 9 a.m. on May 5, 2020. It is not yet clear whether the hearing would be conducted electronically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More information is available within the meeting materials for the April 7 Board meeting beginning at page 119. Comments may be emailed to countyadmin@co.dakota.mn.us. The April 7 meeting begins at 9 a.m. and can be livestreamed here.
Dakota County Board Chair Mike Slavik was kind enough to join us at our January 2020 meeting and discuss this topic and water quality and quantity issues in general at length. Video of that meeting is available here and the slides from the meeting are available here.
Update: The resolution calling for a public hearing was unanimously approved. More info here.