Sandeep Burman
Appearances
Health Chatter
Water & Health
You know, there's only so much room to put all of your underground utilities. So our sanitary sewer lines and our drinking water lines sometimes are in close proximity. But the big safety measure there is the fact that drinking water is pressurized and that keeps anything from getting into it.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Now, occasionally you have incidents where you lose pressure, you have waterman breaks or mechanical failures. So that's where you worry about the wastewater side of things, or even just shallow groundwater that may be tainted with microorganisms getting into your water supply.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And so there exists lots of procedures to detect those issues and that's when you get those boil water advisories and the non-drink advisories till the problem can be solved and system can be flushed and repaired and lots of sampling takes place to ensure that there are no bacteria showing up and then people can go back to using their water.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So that's the big source of concern is just the bacteria from the outside environment getting into what's essentially a closed and sanitized system, which is your public water supplies, the conveyance for that. There are pathogens that can... live in drinking water systems. And again, there's a number of measures to counteract that.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
A properly maintained public water system where the water is moving, is not stagnant, is flushed properly, is not a conducive environment for opportunistic pathogens like Legionella, for instance, very specific conditions have to come together. And usually that's because of a poorly maintained system.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So again, there's multiple ways through which you monitor that to make sure that those conditions never come to exist, where you can have an opportunistic pathogen like Legionella take hold. So in a public water system and kind of closed system that it is, you know, those are kind of the primary things you worry about. It's just bacteria, which is, you know,
Health Chatter
Water & Health
all pervasive and present everywhere and the opportunity pathogens. And there's just a host of safety mechanisms in place where those conditions that could be favorable are detected early and fixed. So again, the public water system is very adept at ensuring that waterborne disease doesn't take hold and doesn't propagate through a public water system.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
The future in Minnesota is good. We can be hopeful that it's going to be a stable future where both quantity and quality can be sustained. And that again goes back to what we're blessed with for natural resources and then the Then the regulatory and administrative environment that exists, investments that have been made and will continue to be made on the infrastructure side.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And the fact that in Minnesota, we recognize the value of water. By and large, it's a... It's something that cuts across party lines and any other kinds of differences. We may have other things. There's no one questions the value and importance of water to not just everyday life, but to industry and commerce. So, you know, it kind of cuts across all of those things.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So I think this is a state that does recognize the value of water, does recognize the importance to keep making those investments. And we have the national factors working in our favor so far in terms of our resources and resources. So, you know, that, of course, is something that will have to be watched.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
You know, as we know that things are changing in the environment and what does the long-term future hold, but we have to adapt to climate and make sure we are conserving and protecting the natural resources so we always have abundant sources. You know, globally, like you said, it is probably a lot more challenging.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Again, we have the impacts of climate change are going to be, you know, widely felt and they're going to vary. And I think... If you look at some of the global statistics, a big chunk of this planet, a lot of countries are in a water-stressed environment, and that's not likely to improve on its own. So they are going to have to be very careful about managing and conserving water.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And again, I think water is, as you said, it's liquid gold. It is probably the constraining resource, and I think that is getting recognized more and more that the availability of water is going to be a driving factor in how nations and economies fare over time. So it is a very, very critical issue, something that everyone needs to pay very close attention to.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Minnesota, I think we can be optimistic. Globally, I think a lot of attention will need to be paid to make sure that everybody on planet Earth has a safe and sustainable water future. That is not a guarantee. lot of work, a lot of hard work.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
I think that's a really, really important issue, and that is getting the attention it deserves in Minnesota. Is that happening everywhere else? That's really, really hard to... Really hard to know without knowing kind of in details of how those states or those cities may be managing some of the health equity issues. But this is an issue that in Minnesota has been front and center for a long time.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And it really comes down to, does everybody have access to the same quality of water at kind of the same rates, right? So that's a big focus here for us in Minnesota Department of Health.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
working with our other sister agencies, working with the legislature to really try and level that playing field to assure that at least public water supply consumers across the state are really experiencing a level playing field in terms of what they're getting and how much they're having to pay for it.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So we build in a lot of those factors into how systems are funded, how public funds are used, trying to maintain that balance. So that will remain a focus on the public water supply side of things. That's definitely sort of a fundamental part of the process now. It gets a lot more complicated when you look at what's happening on people that have private wells.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
You know, 20% of the state's population still gets their water from private water supplies. And there's probably big differences there because people are responsible for upkeep of their private water system entirely on their own. And I think that's the part where the state probably needs to pay some attention to and And you need to cross those barriers off.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Those are private properties and it's private infrastructure. What is the government's role in that? So I think those are discussions that are taking place. There are some fundamental things there that have to be figured out. But if you look at the fact that drinking water,
Health Chatter
Water & Health
a fundamental right everyone's entitled to, whether they're drinking from private supplies or public supplies, then I think the private side of the matter probably needs a lot more discussion, a lot more attention to be paid for it to give those people the same kind of protection and facilities that public water supplies enjoy today.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Yes, Dan, again, that's one of the prevailing issues of our time is the debate about adding fluoride to water. So there's unquestionably data that has shown that the addition of those small quantities of fluoride has had a huge impact on dental health. But nonetheless, we also know that fluoride in higher quantities can go the other way, that it can cause you harm.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So this aspect gets studied very closely, and scientists the world over in the U.S. work very hard to make sure that the amount of fluoride that's set in Minnesota, it's set in California. It's set in state statute and nationally CDC has guidance for how much fluoride needs to be added. And those numbers have been revised downwards as now we get fluoride from other sources too.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
There's fluoride in toothpaste and fluoride in mouthwash. So with all of that, the amount of fluoride that gets added to municipal waters has been revised downwards to keep that total exposure to fluoride at a safe level. And certainly, although this is a very, very highly researched topic, lots of experts looking at this very closely, the world over,
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So I think people can be confident that the small amount of fluoride being added into municipal water supplies is not going to push us over that area where we're getting too much fluoride. But nonetheless, this is a topic of great debate and people are certainly justified in having concerns that we're getting too much fluoride because that is not healthy either.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
But again, all we can do is assure people that this is an issue that everyone's aware of. And again, our medical community, our scientific community, keep a very close eye on how much is being added to municipal supplies to make things, just keep things in balance.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Yeah, the underpinnings, again, on public water supplies, everybody follows the Safe Drinking Water Act. That's the federal requirement. All the states in the United States, barring perhaps one, have been delegated the authority by the federal government to administer the Safe Drinking Water Act in the state. So we're all really using the same playbook.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So we can be assured that when you travel across the border, the water and the public water supply really is following the same rules and regulations and the same kind of testing, the same rules. Everybody has to meet the same quality criteria. So that's a pretty constant thing as you travel across the United States. So there's definitely some reassurance in that.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And besides that, there is a lot of coordination and communication and sharing of information and cross-training and learning from each other. We do a lot of things collaboratively with our neighboring states. And we share some of our source waters. We have the same aquifers, the same surface water bodies, the same rivers that flow across.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So there's a lot of coordination on making sure that we are helping each other out and keeping those source waters safe. There's definitely coordination there. And again, I think state to state, share the same values, share the same signs, share the same regulations. So it is not a patchwork. It is a pretty consistent body of regulation and practices across this country.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So that's a very good thing. That gives us that assurance that we're not going to be running into different sort of frameworks as we travel across the country. It is a very consistent situation. And I think that's reassuring.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So it goes back to, I grew up in India, a country that has lots of water and also very little water, depending on where you are in the country. And I trained to be an engineer and a geologist there. And I was fascinated with working on water. big projects, you know, mining and tunneling and building big dams. That's how I started and realized that water was central to all of those things.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
You're either trying to control water, harness water, or do something with water. Got me thinking about the value of water itself fundamentally. So I got interested in water and I came to the United States for graduate studies and I wanted to really study water. And then I went from you know, just studying how to find water, use water to really protecting and conserving it.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
You know, I went to work in the, pollution control industry, cleaning up big contamination, and again, contamination in water, especially drinking water with the most highest profile, highest importance projects. My graduate thesis had to do with water. I was part of the team that developed the wellhead protection plan for the state in the early days of the plan.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Then I kind of went away from drinking water per se, but worked in areas that were related to drinking water. So then came to MDH four years earlier in this position. It was sort of coming back to my roots and coming back to drinking water.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So I think a long association with water, different aspects of it, sort of over time really began to understand that water is liquid gold, and especially drinking water is the defining issue of our time, and it's going to define where we go as a species in the future.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
I think there can be no, as you've said yourself, you cannot possibly understate the value of drinking water, what it means to humankind.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So I think, Stan, I think there's, unfortunately, there's the water infrastructure, however robust and resilient to make it, You can't really design something that can sustain human conflict and deliberate targeting because I think that is a strategic thing is to take out some of those infrastructure things to force the other side to capitulate.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So it takes a long time to rebuild your water system. So again, you have to make sure that the source waters have come through actively intact and groundwater, surface water, they'll be affected differently. Surface water is a lot more vulnerable. And the infrastructure, if it's been physically destroyed, you're looking at a very time-consuming, very expensive effort to bring that back into...
Health Chatter
Water & Health
into use. So for a long time, you're probably looking at bringing water in and supplying it to people that way. And I think that's typically what you see as, that's why water is such a huge component of aid packages that go in and relieve supplies. Water is front and center. Humans can probably survive a long time with food shortages, but a lot less without water.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So I think just bringing water in, supplying water to these areas, just becomes a fundamental part of the relief efforts and the rebuilding.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Drinking water is a fascinating utility because at the end of the day, it is a utility. Public water supplies are a utility. That is provided to us. It is really an intersection of two dimensions. You have the natural environment, which is the sources of our water. Ultimately, that's our lakes and rivers and streams and our underground waters.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Yeah. Yeah. So I would just, you know, really, tell Minnesotans to trust their public water supply, to be very proud of their public water supply, to feel very safe about drinking their public water supply. It's a great resource, uh, provided to them at very, very low cost. And, uh, so on the, on the, to balance that they should be appreciative of that. As Anna said, do their part because, uh,
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Water is a great aggregator. It picks up everything on the land surface, anywhere else, and things ultimately end up in the groundwater or the surface water. That's our drinking water. So little things that people can do around their homes and their neighborhoods, simple things like picking up trash, You know, picking up after their dog when they're walking their pets.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Those all, those little things may not seem like it, but they all ultimately end up in the water one way or the other, and that's what we drink. So the less we, you know, we can reduce the burden on our source water, water will continue to stay abundant and cheap.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So everyone has a role in this, but at the end of the day, people should appreciate that the water they get to drink from a public water supply is a finished product. A lot of work goes into it. A lot of regulations govern it. There is a tremendous amount of transparency about it.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So they can help themselves to all that information about their water very easily from their city website or by calling the Department of Health. So it's an open book. People should trust it and they should enjoy it and they should do their part to protect it.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And you have all of the infrastructure that takes that raw water and it makes it portable and fit for human consumption. So how much effort you have to spend in making that raw water portable depends on the quality of that raw water, sometimes very little and sometimes a lot. But in terms of water getting compromised, you can see how these two dimensions come together.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
We have the natural environment and we have the built environment, and these two have to function hand in hand. And if either of those is not the way they should be, so if the quality of the natural water isn't fit for human consumption, then there you have a problem there. And then sometimes you can have perfectly good
Health Chatter
Water & Health
raw water available, but your infrastructure isn't working the way it should be, and then you get compromised there too. So you can have the quality of the water be the problem, and sometimes it's just the quantity. And the quantity, again, it could be you have constraints in the quantity of the natural raw water available to you. That's droughts, and we see some very profound effects of droughts
Health Chatter
Water & Health
of climate change happening that is causing different concerns there. And then sometimes the infrastructure, the mechanical things that get the water to you, those may break down. So you can have both quantity and quality aspects introduced from the infrastructure as well. So it's kind of, you know, if you look at it that way, it's like a two by two matrix and you have quantity and quality.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And then you have the raw water and the finished water, which is the natural environment and the infrastructure. So you could have issues kind of on this grid, if you imagine this matrix kind of four quadrants, and each of those could be compromised and constrained, or you could have more than one of these areas. And then the effect starts to magnify itself.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So no, I'm not, and most public water systems are quite robust and there's lots of measures in place to prevent this from happening. But these are kind of these areas, four areas, quantity, quality, and then natural and built. The intersection of these is where you can have the compromise take place.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
I think it's the same, you know, living creatures, kind of biologically, we're really all the same. So things that would impair, you know, the human body, probably not very good for, you know, animals, pets, livestock, really the same quality concerns, I think, you know, exist. Yeah. Okay. Clarence.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Well, I'm happy to. Yeah, no. Yeah, I'm happy to report that people in Minnesota can, you know, generally feel really good about their state of water, especially their public water, right? We're lucky in this state that we have a lot of water, as you were saying, we're pretty water rich. And then generally speaking, the quality of those source waters is pretty good, right?
Health Chatter
Water & Health
We're predominantly, we predominantly are consumers of groundwater. So most of the public water supplies in the state, you know, 80% of the, population of the state that drinks public water is getting their water from groundwater. And then the remaining 20% is coming from surface water.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
And our surface water sources are some pretty well-known sources, primarily the Mississippi River, Lake Superior, and then some kind of smaller lakes in the southern part of the state. Again, blessed with really good water quality inherently in those surface water bodies. And then our groundwaters are pretty high quality too.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So in that regard, you know, we are fairly well off both in terms of quantity and quality. Do have to be careful because the pressures continue to grow in terms of population growth and use of water for not just drinking, but for irrigation, agriculture in other ways, industry. So the demand on water keeps on growing because water is not just a public health,
Health Chatter
Water & Health
essential requirement for humans to live, but it's also critical for industry and commerce and recreation. And the same water gets used for all of those purposes. So we have to be careful about using the sheer demands on water. And then we have to keep watching out for threats, you know, both natural and manmade, because again, you can have
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Geologically, we have minerals that are not good for us in large quantities, things like arsenic and radium and even iron manganese at high levels could be a problem. And then there's all of the artifacts of our economy of today, you know, lots of agriculture, lots of industry. And again, environmental protection, pretty in a different place today than it probably was 50 years ago.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So a lot of practices that were commonplace and acceptable and even permitted, you know, 50 years ago led to contamination of the waters. And so there's some of that legacy contamination that impacts water supply sometimes, and that has to be dealt with. Going forward, I think we, generally speaking, our environmental laws, our conservation laws are much more rigorous now, much more sophisticated.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So we're probably not causing additional problems in terms of chemical pollution, but we do have a legacy of chemical pollution that has to be diligently monitored. But in spite of all of that, those things are all fairly well understood, fairly well documented. There aren't any kind of hidden dangers that we're going to stumble into with one of our water supplies.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So given this multi-pronged approach that exists of testing the waters, monitoring it, keeping an eye on things, I think public water supplies in Minnesota are some of the safest and most reliable in the country. And I think we have The numbers reflect that. The Safe Drinking Water Act is the underpinning of nationally.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
That's how public water supplies are monitored, and we have to comply with that. We have one of the highest compliance rates in the country. We're probably up there in that top 5%, 10% nationally of how well we comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act. So a pretty great record to be proud of. We are a large state. We're sort of in the middle, you know, as far as population and size goes.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
So in spite of that, we have a very good track record for how well our public water supplies rank nationally. So lots to be grateful for, but also lots to just be careful and continue to move as well.
Health Chatter
Water & Health
Yeah, thanks, Dan. So when it comes to waterborne disease, infectious disease that can spread through your public water supply, the biggest concern really is bacteria and coliform bacteria that's associated with fecal matter. And what's the source of that? That's your... your sanitary system, right, or your wastewater system. And oftentimes, these are just the way our infrastructure is built.