(Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 1, 2019)
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Could Minnesota water end up in the thirsty southwestern United States? In what is believed to be a first for Minnesota, the state has received a request from a small Lakeville railroad company asking what it would take for them to drill two wells in Dakota County and pull out up to 500 million gallons of groundwater a year. The water would then be shipped via rail to communities near the Colorado River in the arid Southwest. Empire Building Investments, the real estate arm of Lakeville-based Progressive Rail, submitted an application for a preliminary well assessment to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources this month proposing to build the wells on 6.2 acres the railroad owns north of Randolph.
Full story: Duluth News Tribune