Water usage levels are decreasing even as populations increase.

According to the Department of National Resources, Minnesotans are using 90 billion gallons less water a year than they did 35 years ago. This is despite the state’s population growing by two million from then to now. The total number of gallons used is currently at 1.1 trillion gallons, 400 billion less than their peak of 1.5 trillion gallons in the mid-2000s.

Though not in the same massive numbers, New Ulm’s water usage has been following a downward trend in water usage. Public Utilities Commission Water and Energy Supervisor George Brown said the numbers defy what was previously expected.

“About 670 million gallons [have been produced] for the whole year,” he said. “In 2014 the number was 801 million gallons. It varies from year to year depending on whether you’re in a drought condition or you have plenty of moisture. We have a slow downward trend. From 2014 to 2023 it went down about 6%. When we were looking at water usage in the late ’90s, we were expecting to see an increase of water usage by 3% a year.”

Roughly 2.2 million gallons are used by New Ulm citizens every day. Brown said their storage containers have enough room for 8 million gallons, equating to around four days of water if the plant were ever to go down. Brown said the city of New Ulm has been uniquely committed to ensuring water infrastructure is safe.

“When they built this plant in 1993, they decided to make a very nice brick building to fit into the rest of the community,” he said. “Not all communities do that. I’ve been in communities where they have a metal shed for a building. One of the unique things is when they built it they wanted to be self-sufficient. When they first started the water system, they wanted to have fire protection. [Because of this], they built the distribution system with quite a lot of storage.”

One thing that has kept water usage from decreasing further is the older houses within New Ulm. The plumbing within these houses is not designed to use water efficiently, resulting in more water usage. Brown said a big portion of the water usage decrease has been from these houses being redone internally.

“There’s a certain number of them being redone every year,” he said. “One of the first things they do is redo the bathrooms. They take out the old toilets and sink fixtures. What they buy in the store is going to be more efficient and use less water. In the late 1990s, it took between five and six gallons of water every flush of the toilet. Now you can buy toilets that use less than two gallons per flush, and some of them are down in there to where they can flush with about half a gallon. It’s saving a lot of water in this community.”

While this routine is part of the reason, Brown said people are making conscious efforts to reduce their water usage. Turning the water off during teeth-brushing and not letting the water run when hand-washing dishes were a couple of examples Brown gave of efforts people use to reduce water usage. Brown said the water department and school system have both been major players in stimulating these efforts.

“We give tours for elementary school students,” Brown said. “In May they come and visit our plant, and they see how we treat the water. At different events, we have brochures about conserving water and making sure any abandoned wells are sealed up. We get credits for our brochures and tours. The big part is the schools doing the water portion of their science classes. It’s effective to have the third graders go home and tell their family, ‘Hey, you’re not supposed to be running the water here, you’re supposed to be turning the faucet off and saving water.'”

Brown said the state is encouraging this trend to continue. He pointed to the Department of National Resources issuing a goal to each water utility in Minnesota to reduce their consumption by 20% as an example. Due to the relatively small population in New Ulm, Brown believes this is a tough goal to work toward. He also cautioned against people not using enough water, as it can create a different set of problems.

“You have to have enough water going through the sewer lines to move solids to the sewage treatment plant,” he said. “You could conceivably get to where you had such a low water flow, the sewers would start plugging up.”

For more information, visit https://www.newulmmn.gov/101/Public-Utilities or call the water department at 507-359-8279.