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Environmental Health Division
Climate and Health Stories: Lih-in Rezania
Meet Lih-in Rezania.
Lih-in is a public health engineer with our Drinking Water Protection Program. She helps ensure that public water suppliers are meeting safe drinking water standards, with a previous focus on the twenty-three Minnesota communities that use treated surface water as their primary source of drinking water, and a new focus on projects relating to data management.
What most excites you about your work?
Lih-in: There are always new challenges with water. Many sustainable water management strategies, such as water reuse or water conservation pose their own unique challenges. For example, conservation has made us reduce the amount of water we use, however the pipes in our buildings and homes were built to hold much larger volumes of water. This brings challenges in maintaining the water quality once it flows into the pipes, because it now stays in there for a longer period of time.
How is your program preparing for and/or responding to climate changes in Minnesota?
Lih-in: Water supply system operators feel the effects of climate change. They have been some of our best partners because they are eager to do the right thing and make their systems more resilient. We’re also looking for ways to make vulnerability assessments and emergency planning more accessible. Small, rural water system operators don’t always have the time and resources to undergo the planning process. Building trust and providing technical assistance with these partners is the foundation of our program.
Fortunately, Minnesota has prioritized water in the past few decades. The Clean Water Fund provides funding for water management activities, including planning, monitoring, and restoration projects. With this funding, it’s our goal to protect drinking water at the source. If the water is clean to start with, it will need less treatment down the line.
Why do you think it’s important for MDH to be working on this issue?
Lih-in: Safe and affordable water is essential for both our economy and public health — over 75 percent of Minnesotans rely on groundwater for their daily drinking water. We still don’t know exactly how much water is available in our underground reservoirs and how quickly it recharges. With those unknowns it’s so important that we conserve and protect our water, especially with the additional risks to our water from climate change.
How has climate change impacted your life personally?
Lih-in: I first came to the U.S., from Taiwan, 40 years ago — Minnesota seemed like the perfect place to live — beautiful lakes, comfortable summer temperature, and no earthquakes. However, I’ve been experiencing more Taiwan-like hot and muggy summer days in recent years here. Also, at our lake property in northern Minnesota, we used to always know what the water level would be in the summer, but lately we often find our dock sitting on top of the lake water.
Looking ahead to retirement, I’m hoping to spend a lot more time traveling. With our weather becoming less consistent and more extreme, I can always expect delays at the airport.
How has integrating climate change into your work allowed you to collaborate with programs you normally wouldn’t?
Lih-in: Tackling climate change has allowed our work to be less siloed. We’ve had the opportunity to work with the Minnesota Climate & Health Program and develop our own goals and objectives in the strategic plan. We can’t halt climate change, but humans are adaptable and we can become more resilient. Rather than using 100-year flood planning, we’re working to look much further into the future. By anticipating our future, we’re better able to shape our outcomes.
What do you think are the biggest opportunities for climate and health moving forward?
Lih-in: One of our biggest challenges and opportunities is finding ways to protect our water that meet both our conservation and health protection goals. For example, to manage water quality in the water system we recommend hydrant flushing and to reduce lead in drinking water we recommend flushing the faucets, which don’t align with water conservation.
On the other hand, there are new and exciting opportunities for water reuse and for treatment innovation that bring safe drinking water while also reducing energy consumption. One such example is the use of biological filtration systems, using bacteria to consume and remove nitrate or ammonia, instead of using the power intensive Reverse Osmosis (RO) System that produces a wastewater flow that contains high levels of nitrate or ammonia, solids, and salts that requires disposal.
Lastly, when we build and maintain infrastructure for water, we need to be thoughtful of our populations’ current and future drinking water needs and how best to meet them.