New water project

From this blog or otherwise, you probably know I have a special interest in water. This week I started video production on a new documentary about regional issues of water use, that I’m guessing will have a lot to say about our consciousness and management of water in Minnesota.

Right here in the northeast Twin Cities metro area, the water levels in many lakes have been steadily decreasing in recent years to historical lows. The reasons for this have not been clear. Around White Bear Lake, the situation has obviously impacted residents and businesses on the lake. But it’s also seriously compromised the lake’s recreational features, likely affected local tourism, and been a major downer for a community whose identity is centered around this beautiful and historical body of water.

Moonrise over White Bear Lake, January 2012

This past year city, county, state and federal governments collaborated to support research by the US Geological Survey (USGS) to determine the cause of White Bear’s lake level declines. The findings to date were presented at a White Bear Lake Conservation District meeting this week.

One of my most formative experiences when first coming to Minnesota was taking a limnology field course at Lake Itasca, and I’ve been something of a water geek ever since. I’m still trying to get a handle on all the USGS study findings, but am fascinated by the methods they used – sampling wells to look at isotopic markers of different water sources, using a submarine EcoMapper to sample water quality along the lake bottom to find indications of seepage, examining well pumping volumes over time, etc. – to figure out what may be going on.

If you’re interested, you can soon view the findings at the USGS website. In a nutshell, the data indicate that our recent decline in lake levels are associated with greater pumping from high capacity wells (commercial, municipal, and irrigation) that has come with increased development in nearby cities. To a lesser extent, the decline also reflects a decrease in precipitation over the last several years. It’s pretty clear that our water use and water bodies in the area are directly linked through the Prairie du Chien aquifer below us.

What happens next will be the main subject of this film. I’m especially interested in capturing the community and planning discussions, as well as any policies and/or actions that may result.

This week at the Conservation District meeting, working with the videography and production assistance of Tim Splinter, we were able to capture a range of questions from the Board and residents during the meeting itself, as well as additional comments from local residents, a business owner, and a civil engineer. The meeting room itself was packed.

Among the people we talked with was Fletcher Driscoll, a distinguished hydrogeologist and lakeshore resident. His comments mirror the feeling I have that we may be entering a new era in our relationship to water here in Minnesota.

Prayers for Healing

Well, I’m finally to the point where I can show you this – the video I’ve been working on in some shape or form over the last couple years! I’ll let the video speak for itself, and welcome your comments. In this post, however, I’d just like to say a few words about the process of producing a video like this.

This isn’t my first experience producing. In particular, in 1998 I served as Executive Producer of the public television program Town Meeting: A Community Response to Sexual Violence when I was working at the Minnesota Department of Health. In many ways this current project reflects my own evolution from that experience on a personal and professional level.

Since ‘Town Meeting,” which dealt with the effects of sexual violence and the need for prevention at the community level, I have continued to learn a lot about the things that lead to pain and harm in our society. I’ve also learned from other people, from research, and from my own experience about things that are especially important in helping us stay healthy and weather life’s challenges.

Part of what I’ve come to believe is that violence, abuse and despair cannot be prevented or overcome without healing.  Feeling connected, cared for and at peace can happen in many places and many ways. The Healing Ministry that’s described in this video is one avenue I’ve found that offers access to these things in a thoughtful and powerful way.

As a member of the Healing Team, I worked with the group off and on over the course of about a year  to examine the ways we understood and might communicate about this kind of ministry. We talked about our own experiences, the effects, concerns and fears we’d observed, and language that seemed to best capture something that ultimately transcends words. I also had conversations and meetings with the church leadership, to understand their views and seek their approval for the project.

When it came time to start filming, I started asking people who came for prayers about their experience. The people you see in the film were the only ones I interviewed – mainly because I found what each of them said, and said so eloquently, was all that was needed. I confess I feel that throughout this process there was a certain grace at work, consistent with the ministry itself.  Filming and editing took place over about 6 months total, with the final product completed this past summer. Once the video itself was done, there were legal/procedural issues that took additional time and energy, and which, while trying, offered still more lessons about production and opportunities to experience the Spirit at work.

For the Town Meeting, I had a producer, director/editor, crew, television studio, and contracting organization to work with.  For this project, I was flying solo – producing, filming, lighting, sound, interviewing, editing.. the whole deal.  While it’s been a long process, it’s also been very gratifying to use and develop my skills through this project, to build on what I’ve learned and experienced, and to share that with you!