Climate and Health Stories: Mark Wettlaufer

Meet Mark Wettlaufer.

Mark supervises source water protection staff in Southern Minnesota. His team protects our drinking water by developing and implementing wellhead and source water protection plans.

What most excites you about your work?

Mark: Having grown up on my family farm, I enjoy getting to connect with local, rural communities and public water suppliers to equip them with the tools they need to protect the quality of drinking water. My background in agriculture and urban planning gives me a unique perspective in working with both urban and greater Minnesota water suppliers.

How is your program preparing for and/or responding to climate changes in Minnesota?

Mark: We’re currently working on integrating climate change into our wellhead and source water protection programs. Because so many different things can impact drinking water, we need to be thoughtful about who we bring to the table, working with a variety of types and sizes of public water supply systems.

We’re excited to work with other partners and cohost the Building Resilience to Extreme Weather Events Workshop (PDF) this summer. The Training covered resilience planning and adapting to current and future extreme weather threats to wastewater, drinking water, and storm water utility infrastructure and resources.

Also, by collaborating with the Minnesota Climate & Health Program, we were able to design a poster highlighting the EPA’s new CREAT tool, which is a risk assessment application for water utilities. We presented the poster at the Minnesota Rural Water Association Conference and plan on reusing the resource in the future. The poster allowed us to open up conversations about climate change impacts on drinking water with public water supply managers and staff who may have not connected some of the impacts on their utility before.

Why do you think it’s important for MDH to be working on this issue?

Mark: I think climate change is one of the most important public health issues we face. It can impact water supply infrastructure, quality, and quantity, along with other public health topic areas our agency works on, from infectious diseases to mental health. Attending a presentation by Kelsey Jones-Casey earlier this year on warming winters and the emotional impact really hit home for me. As an outdoorsman and fisherman, I’ve witnessed changes in our environment for some time now, but hearing a researcher specifically call out the feelings of loss that come with the negative impacts and changes to our natural environment is really powerful.

How has climate change impacted your life personally?

Mark: While I love my job, traveling is my passion—it’s what gets me up in the morning. Both my wife and I enjoy traveling and fishing. I spent eight days in the Amazon Basin on a fishing trip, surrounded by jungle. I’ve also been able to travel to Alaska, Costa Rica, Panama, and other parts of Latin America. The ecosystem, birds, and fish are fascinating. Having such a strong connection to nature, it’s sad to think those treasures might not always be here because of climate change.

How has integrating climate change into your work allowed you to collaborate with programs you normally wouldn’t?

Mark: We see so many opportunities for collaboration around water. For example, the Minnesota Climate & Health Program published a study on the future flood impacts for populations on private wells. We hope to incorporate the study findings into our work. Also, One Watershed, One Plan is a State program that supports the development and implementation of local, grass roots comprehensive watershed management plans in Minnesota. This systematic, watershed-wide effort offers another opportunity for us to incorporate drinking water protection and resiliency planning.

What do you think are the biggest opportunities for climate and health moving forward?

Mark: I think both short- and long-term solutions are important. For now, we can work to move wells out of high risk flood plain zones. In the future, we can make our planning process more proactive by building wells in safer locations to start with and making sure we use materials that will withstand future threats. Also, don’t forget the importance of daily conversations. Reach out to your neighbor or city council representative. Having conversations about climate change is an easy step to help us all move forward.