 djoles@startribune.com The solution to the catastrophic decline in the level of White Bear Lake might be as close as the Mississippi River. The question is how to get the water there. Thanks to a $2 million study funded by the Legislature, the Metropolitan Council is undertaking an effort to see if such a plan, along with](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/T5ZSPTSHW7DRGZIHMY6NXRWPKU.jpg?&w=1080)
A broad swath of the northeast metro is being drawn into a new state plan to watch over the use of water, based on trend lines warning of big problems in the future.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said Thursday that all of Washington and Ramsey counties and parts of Anoka and Hennepin will become part of a "groundwater management area."
"If we are not careful in how we use water," DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr warned, "both economic development and ecosystems could be put at risk."
The northeast metro has drawn attention in recent years as White Bear Lake's water levels have dipped. The deeper issue, though, the DNR says, is simply that in much of the area, "communities, businesses and agriculture … are entirely reliant on groundwater as a source of water supply."
The plan demands no immediate change but sets a direction "for managing [water use] more carefully and comprehensively in the years ahead."
White Bear Lake Mayor Jo Emerson said she's confident the state isn't being "real draconian, but offering more of a blueprint."
It has yet to be determined, she said, what role municipal wells are playing in White Bear Lake's decline. "There are so many factors: Historically it has gone down at times, it has ebbed and flowed," long before today's suburban sprawl.
A key step in the new approach, the DNR plan says, is increased "monitoring and evaluation of groundwater and groundwater-dependent natural resources."
