Calow, PeterLewandowski, Marcelle2023-12-192023-12-192023-12https://hdl.handle.net/11299/259166The Minnesota Department of Health is developing a state drinking water plan to map a ten-year strategy for ensuring a safe, equitable and reliable drinking water supply far into the future. To ensure the plan reflects a diversity of perspectives, MDH solicited support from the University of Minnesota. In turn, the U of M partners reached out to Freshwater to gather input from water supply professionals, and to Clean River Partners to gather input from water consumers. This report is a result of the feedback from professionals. The feedback was gathered using the previously developed Governance Assessment Framework (GAF). We summarize the lessons learned about critical issues in drinking water supply management and about the usefulness of the GAF as an assessment tool. Based on the lessons, we provide recommendations for the state drinking water plan.Drinking water is life-giving, essential, and finite. Its management is messy, complex, and far-reaching. In 2022, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced that it would be developing a statewide drinking water plan to guide the management of drinking water over the next ten years. To inform the development of that plan, MDH also chose to conduct an assessment of the current governance of systems impacting drinking water in order to identify challenges and opportunities in the systems themselves which the statewide plan could address. This report summarizes the input received from focus group conversations and a survey with drinking water professionals based on an established set of criteria known as the Governance Assessment Framework.endrinking watergovernanceReport