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<br />[204185/1] 16 <br />84. With this authority, DNR established the Northeast Groundwater <br />Management Area. The area includes a five to seven-mile area around White Bear <br />Lake.84 <br />85. Only three such Groundwater Management Areas exist in Minnesota. The <br />Northeast Groundwater Management Area was established to respond to shortages in <br />groundwater supplies.85 <br />VIII. Development and Application of a Transient Water Model <br />86. The District Court’s findings on the impacts of groundwater pumping to <br />White Bear Lake followed from the “steady state” water model. The steady state model <br />was developed by the United States Geological Service.86 <br />87. Among the shortcomings of a steady state water model, however, is that it <br />lacks a time component. It cannot represent conditions between White Bear Lake and <br />the underlying aquifers over time.87 <br />88. And, as groundwater flows in and out of White Bear Lake, over time, the <br />hydrology of the area changes.88 <br />89. A “transient water model” can reflect those changes in its results.89 <br />90. A workable transient water model was not available to the District Court in <br />2017.90 <br />91. To set a collective annual withdrawal limit, and to meet the District Court’s <br />directive to analyze the impacts and sustainability of groundwater withdrawals, DNR <br />developed new analytical tools.91 <br />92. DNR contracted with a leading water modeling firm, S.S. Papadopulos & <br />Associates, to develop a “transient water model.” The model – also known as the <br />Northeast Metro Lakes Groundwater model – incorporates eight different layers of <br />geology representing each major hydrogeologic unit.92 <br />93. DNR also incorporated soil-water balances and the rates at which water <br />deposited on the ground, seeps through the soil and “recharges” the water table below.93 <br /> <br />84 Tr. Vol. 10 at 181-82 (Moeckel). <br />85 Id. at 182-83. <br />86 WBL Dist at *12, *22-24, *33, *66. <br />87 Tr. Vol. 2 at 95 (Bauer); Tr. Vol. 3 at 19-20, 58 (Champion); Tr. Vol. 5 at 22 (Grubb). <br />88 Tr. Vol. 3 at 20-21 (Champion). <br />89 Tr. Vol. 2 at 92-93 (Bauer); Tr. Vol. 3 at 15 (Champion). <br />90 WBL-Dist, at *24, 66; Tr. Vol. 3 at 24-25 (Champion). <br />91 See Tr. Vol. 3 at 25 (Champion); Tr. Vol. 10 at 238 (Doneen); see also Minn. Stat. § 103G.285, subd. 3(a). <br />92 DNR Ex. 3 at 5; Tr. Vol. 3 at 20 (Champion). <br />93 Tr. Vol. 3 at 21 (Champion).