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).
In America, nearly 100% of the natural gas used in CNG applications is domestically produced. Natural gas comes from subterranean wells called shale plays. The shale rock creates a solid layer that traps methane, the principal component to natural gas fuel. Once drillers tap into the shale plays, the natural gas is pumped to the surface where it is cleaned, dried, and compressed to become CNG. Natural gas dispensed for fuel is measured by a Gasoline Gallon Equivalent (GGE).