A monthslong fight over economic development in Crookston has ended with the ouster of the entire board of the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA).

The Crookston City Council dismissed the CHEDA board at a recent council meeting. The organization will be run by council members until a new board can be appointed.

In public meetings, council members had expressed unhappiness with CHEDA, questioning whether it was getting results.

CHEDA board members fought against a proposal to dissolve the group and turn over its role to a city economic development department. The council decided to keep the organization in place, but with new leadership.

John Reinan

Red Lake Falls

Drought causing out-of-water calls

With the state of Minnesota in a drought warning, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is offering guidance and resources for areas where extreme drought conditions are affecting groundwater supply for agriculture irrigation, municipal water supply and domestic wells.

Most of Red Lake County and about half of Polk County in northwestern Minnesota are experiencing extreme drought conditions that are affecting groundwater supply.

Due to increased use of groundwater and a lack of groundwater recharge via rainfall or other surface water, the aquifer system that supplies water to groundwater users has struggled to keep up. That has led to an increase in domestic out-of-water calls.

Domestic wells pump groundwater from shallow aquifers, while wells used for irrigation and municipal water pump from deeper aquifers. During a drought, use of deeper aquifers can lower the water level of shallow aquifers, which in turn, can disrupt domestic wells near irrigation well sites.

The DNR encourages Minnesotans to conserve water and have an emergency plan, including having bottled water.

If unable to restore water supply, contact the DNR's well interference coordinator at 651-259-5034 or the area hydrologist for Polk and Red Lake counties at 218-219-8585.

The department encourages collaboration between domestic well owners and high-capacity users. If a resolution can't be reached, the DNR investigates.

Domestic well owners and municipal water suppliers, who have top priority when water supply is limited, can submit a well interference complaint to the DNR if they believe a high-capacity well has caused the outage.

Reid Forgrave