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This project yielded both a radio report and an online story that documented widespread illegal crop irrigation in Minnesota, a normally water-rich state that saw several instances of diminishing groundwater supplies during recent droughts. MPR found compelling evidence that about a third of the more than 1000 irrigation wells drilled in the state between 2008 and 2012 operated illegally without a permit for a time, some of them continuing to operate illegally. They used satellite photographs to show that many of the unpermitted wells were near operating irrigation systems.