As Bluestem reported back in September's MN12A: Does Backer want to strip citizens of ability to ask MPCA for environmental studies?, the decision by the Citizens Board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to require Riverview Dairy to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was cited by Backer as an example of government overreach.
But according to a reliable source, this decision represents the first time a large feedlot was asked to conduct an EIS by the Citizens Board.
With Backer's win, part of the Republican wave that took back the Minnesota House of Representatives, Bluestem has been wondering whether Backer's notion of curbing or eliminating the Citizen Board of the MPCA might gain steam.
Apparently, in Wednesday's meeting of the Senate Rural Task, Senator Julie Rosen (R-Vernon Center) called the MPCA's structure into question.
Changing the MPCA's structure would be a significant change for the agency, established in 1967.
The only coverage of this meeting by the media is in Politics in Minnesota. Mike Mosedale reports in MPCA chief grilled over mega-dairy decision:
In August, after the Citizens Board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency overruled a recommendation from agency staff and ordered a full-blown environmental impact statement for a proposed mega-dairy operation in Stevens County, environmentalists heralded the move as a historic and increasingly rare victory in their fight against the proliferation of so-called “factory farms.”
It was a much different story at the Capitol on Wednesday, where members of the Senate’s Rural Task Force grilled MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine about the decision. . . .
Rosen also called into question the MPCA’s unusual governance structure, which grants major decision-making power to the board’s eight citizen members.
“We’ve given our Citizens Board a tremendous amount of power,” said Rosen. “I’m very concerned about what we’ve unleashed.” . .
Reading that, one might imagine that the Citizens Board was some new dirty hippie development, while the Senate Rural Task Force was carved in granite when the Glacial River Warren broke through the ice dam of Lake Agassiz.
But if the truth be told, the Senate Rural Task Force is a lot newer than the Citizens Board of the MPCA.
Although the archives of the meetings of the Citizens Board online only extend back to 2007, it appears that the citizens board has been part of the agency's structure since its creation in 1967. We find mention of it in Nexis All-New dating back to 1982. That's mostly because that's the sunrise for the database itself.
The Senate Rural Task Force? Announced in August 2014.
According to Senate Forms Bipartisan Rural Task Force, a press release issued by Senator Saxhaug's office on August 22, 2014:
Sen. Tom Saxhaug (DFL-Grand Rapids) and Sen. Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont) announced the formation of a rural legislative task force on Friday. The bipartisan panel of eight Senators will work this fall to identify specific needs for rural Minnesota.
“The needs of Greater Minnesota can be very different than those in the metro area,” said Saxhaug. “A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in areas that have a large amount of land and small population density. From the forests of northeastern Minnesota to the farmland in the south, providing economic growth and quality education in rural areas is a much different challenge than in the Twin Cities.”
Added Rosen, “We need to take a serious look at the needs and differences between our rural communities and the seven-county metro area. Whether it is affordable and accessible health care, nursing home access for our elderly that want to stay in their community, or safe roads in rural areas, I look forward to working toward solutions we can implement to help the smaller communities around our state.”
The members include DFL Senators Tom Saxhaug, Kent Eken, Vicki Jensen and Kevin Dahle. Republican members include Senators Julie Rosen, Gary Dahms, Bill Weber and Paul Gazelka. The group will concentrate on topics relating to education, health care and nursing home access, transportation, economic development, and property taxes.
The task force has meetings planned throughout the fall and into December and will identify key issues that impact rural areas. Their goal is to prepare legislation before the Legislative Session begins in January 2015.
Here's what was on the agenda of the task on Wednesday:
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Rural Task Force
| Chair: Sen. Tom Saxhaug 02:00 PM Room 112 Capitol Other Items may be added |
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While we have requested both from Senate communications staff, we haven't been able to obtain a copy of audio or minutes from Wednesday's meeting of the Senate Rural Task, and we have left a message with Senator Saxhaug's office.
We'll be taking a closer look at Rosen's statements when we get the audio (we're assuming that the Senators took per diem for this meeting and those recorded it).
And the senator's fascinating process of defining just who is "real ag? Stay tuned.
Photo: Some alfalfa bales in Greater Minnesota.
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