​What is the value of water?

By Peg Furshong and Clovis Curl, CURE

Peg@curemn.org

What do CO2 pipelines, hydrogen hubs, data centers and industrial ag have in common? Water.

With many new projects on the horizon for the upper Midwest, it is time we pause and reflect on a critical question: What is the value of water?

Here in the Midwest, we often pride ourselves on being “water rich” — think “Land of 10,000 Lakes” — but this overlooks the growing strain on our water from rapidly-expanding water intensive industries. Let’s consider how these growing industries will affect our future. While it’s hard to imagine not having water in the midst of a rainy season, just this time last year we were in severe drought that left some communities scrambling to figure out how they were going to supply their community with drinking water. One —or two or three — rainy seasons won’t make this issue go away.

Let’s tease this out a bit.

Industrial Agriculture

The Upper Midwest is known for its roots in agriculture, and yet many know that west central and southwestern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota are home to North America’s largest corporate dairy operation. Yep – Riverview Dairy is based in Stevens County Minnesota. Their entire corporate footprint extends into North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico and Arizona. Online you can find that they have over a dozen dairies and nearly 100,000 cows in Minnesota alone. On average (and depending on the time of year), a dairy cow consumes 40 gallons of water per day. That is roughly four million gallons of water per day. There are also crop farms that grow the feed for these cows and many of them irrigate at some point in the season.

Dairy operations are only one component of the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) system; there are also swine and poultry barns throughout the landscape. Many of these operations, if not all, rely on Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Water Allocation permits for wells. Many of these wells are not monitored by any flow meter and the MNDNR relies on the permit holders to report the water use on these permits. These permits begin at $140 for up to 50 million gallons per year. Then the permit holder pays $3.50 to $8.00 for each million gallons of water over 50 million gallons per year: basically pennies on the dollar.

Biofuels Industry

Take ethanol production: in addition to the water it takes to grow the corn, it takes roughly 3 to 3.5 gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol. A single plant, like the Green Plains Ethanol Plant in Fergus Falls, MN, uses about 165 million gallons per year (MGY) of water to produce 55 MGY of ethanol.

CO2 Pipelines

In 2022, Summit Carbon Solutions filed permits to build the Midwest Carbon Express, the “world’s largest CO2 pipeline,” spanning five Midwest states and connecting over 57 ethanol plants. To put the CO2 (gas) in the pipeline, it must first be captured, distilled, and compressed for transport. This carbon capture process is extremely water and energy intensive.

Based on current permit applications, this technology more than doubles the water and energy footprint of making ethanol. For a plant like Green Plains, water use would jump to over 300 MGY.

Hydrogen Hubs

Hydrogen hubs are seen as part of the U.S. strategy to decarbonize industries that are seen as vital parts of our economy, such as chemicals, shipping fuel, fertilizer and steel production. Because these industries are essential to the U.S. economy, it is thought that it warrants public investment in this infrastructure to keep the U.S. on track with our climate goals in reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

While the production of hydrogen seems to provide options for these industries, hydrogen is not all that it seems. It is yet another extremely energy and water intensive industry that has many environmental groups concerned, as we see the cumulative impact on our freshwater supply.

Data Centers

To accommodate the rapid growth of mobile internet and cloud-based services, data centers (DCs) are popping up across the upper Midwest. These facilities are extremely energy intensive and require significant amounts of water to cool their processors. The more energy they consume, the more water they need, creating a feedback loop of increased demand. DCs can only be built in places that have reliable access to energy and water, putting stress on areas that have access to both and straining existing resources. As the Information Revolution evolves, there is a need to address the sustainability of the resources needed to support the growth.

What does this mean for the Upper Midwest? We may think of ourselves as “water rich,” and assume that only industries located in the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, West Coast and Southwest are struggling with water. We see this in the agricultural, biofuels, microchips, and energy sectors, just to name a few.

It would be strategic for local and state governments to start paying more attention to their freshwater supplies and examine their water use, consumption and footprint. While there is always a focus to build local rural economies, we must do so smartly. Climate change is already adding stress to our freshwater drinking supplies. How can we plan better for the future? What policies should we be putting into place to protect our water?

The million-dollar question remains; what is the value of water? We know we cannot live without it. Water is an essential part of all that we are and do. It’s time we go beyond putting a price tag on it and make water a core consideration in every part of our plan for the future.

Peg Furshong is the Director of programs for CURE. CURE is a rural Minnesota-based organization that knows rural people, land, and ecosystems are vital to help solve some of the biggest problems Americans face at a grassroots level. For more information, check out curemn.org.