Watershed at a Glance. The Cannon River watershed is located south of the Twin Cities and encompasses areas of Dakota, Goodhue, Le Sueur, Steele, Rice and Waseca counties. The watershed drains approximately 1,460 square miles through two main channels, the Cannon and Straight Rivers, to the Mississippi at Red Wing.
While some large industrial, commercial, and electric generation customers receive natural gas directly from high capacity interstate and intrastate pipelines (usually contracted through natural gas marketing companies), most other users receive natural gas from their local gas utility, also called a local distribution company (LDC).
Natural gas is one of the leading energy sources for distributed generation. Because of the extensive natural gas supply infrastructure and the environmental benefits of using natural gas, it is one of the leading choices for on-site power generation. There are a number of ways in which natural gas may be used on-site to generate electricity. Fuel cells, gas-fired reciprocating engines, industrial natural gas-fired turbines, and microturbines are all popular forms of using natural gas for on-site electricity needs. Industrial Natural Gas Fired Turbines