Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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 is the lead editor for MPR News' environmental coverage. Here are his thoughts on the big environmental stories of the year. 

Water, copper-nickel mining and climate change were the top environmental topics for MPR News in 2014. Concerns about pipelines carrying crude oil, the decline in pollinators and the anniversary of the Wilderness Act that created the Boundary Waters Canoe Area are also on the list.

Water worries in the land of sky blue waters

The impetus for all our water reporting can be found in the opening paragraph of the project that explored the threats to our supply of water in the state, 

In a separate investigation, Mark Steil focused on unpermitted use of groundwater. He found that many people take lots of water without permits. Taking water without permits means no one knows exactly how much groundwater is being pumped out. But the estimate is that 

billions of gallons of pumped water are unaccounted

As important as groundwater is, the most visible symbol of the challenges facing the state’s water supply is White Bear Lake. 

White Bear Lake’s historically low levels

 led to a lawsuit that could mean water from the Mississippi River is used to satisfy needs of north east metro.

 on plans by Polymet to open a copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota. As the year unfolded, we were able to understand more about Polymet’s 

Oil pipelines have long crossed Minnesota carrying crude to processors in the Midwest and beyond. More pipelines are being proposed and that has generated interest in whether pipelines, should one fail, 

pose a potential threat to land and water and wildlife

The deaths of big numbers of honey bees has 

lots of people scrambling to improve habitat for pollinators

The Wilderness Act turned 50 this year. The BWCA was born out of the Wilderness Act and the wounds over the debate over protecting 1 million acres in northeast Minnesota 

Looking out to 2015 the issues will remain largely the same: climate change, copper-nickel mining, water, oil transport, threats to wild spaces and critters.

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Water, copper-nickel mining and climate change were the top environmental topics for MPR News in 2014. Concerns about pipelines carrying crude oil, the decline in pollinators and the anniversary of the Wilderness Act that created the BWCA are also on the list.

Editor’s notebook: Covering the environment in 2014

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