Brewery Sparks Cold Spring Water Concerns

COLD SPRING, Minn. (AP) - There's a water fight in Cold Spring. Or is it a beer fight?

Third Street Brewhouse guzzles water from a local well to concoct its craft beers in Cold Spring, a city of 4,000. But the Department of Natural Resources says it's hurting trout in a nearby stream.

The DNR will cut the brewery's water consumption by 80 percent next year, forcing the owners to turn to an already strained city water system.

Public Works Director Paul Hoeschen says he is scrambling to find a new well by the next February deadline. The city had already been looking for new wells due to high nitrate levels at existing sites. Hoeschen has been pushing to get the brewery an extension.