This morning, we posted in Worth watching: Minnesota House to livestream hearing on wild rice water quality standard bill that the meeting of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee to hear HF1000 would just that.
Accompanied by excellent tweets by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Friends of the BWCAW, the testimony was split between its presentation by Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing), testimony from supporters and opponents, and questions from the committee members.
Committee Chair Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) moved that the bill be considered for possible consideration for inclusion in a larger bill, while reserving the possibility of moving HF1000 forward on its own.
The committee adjourned after nearly two hours and will resume tomorrow at 8:15 a.m., although tomorrow's meeting, which will consistent of only member's questions and comments, will not be livestreamed.
Here's the video. Melin presents, followed by supportive statements from business and industry groups. Around the 48:50 minute mark, Paula Maccabee of Water Legacy led off the opposition testimony given by environmental groups and members of Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) bands. Wild rice lays an important part in indigenous culture and believe.
From this morning's post
Written by Hibbing Democrat Carly Melin, the bill would prohibit applying a wild rice water quality standard until the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency adopts rules to establish criteria for designating waters subject the standard.
Here's the language in the bill:
A bill for an act relating to environment; prohibiting application of wild rice quality standards until certain conditions are met.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1. WILD RICE WATER QUALITY STANDARDS.
(a) Until the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency adopts the rules to establish criteria for designating waters subject to a wild rice water quality standard as required under Laws 2011, First Special Session chapter 2, article 4, section 32, paragraph (b), and adopts the rule as required under Laws 2011, First Special Session chapter 2, article 4, section 32, paragraph (a), designating waters containing natural beds of wild rice that are subject to a wild rice water quality standard and designating the specific times of year during which the standard applies, the commissioner shall not:
(1) apply the wild rice water quality standard for sulfate in class 4A waters to any waters, including incorporating the standard or any requirements based on the standard within any permits, compliance schedules, orders, or other control documents; or
(2) list waters containing natural beds of wild rice as impaired for sulfate under section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act, United States Code, title 33, section 1313.
(b) For the purposes of this section, "waters containing natural beds of wild rice" has the meaning given in Laws 2011, First Special Session chapter 2, article 4, section 32, paragraph (b).
Last week, John Myers reported about a closely related bill (HF 853) in the Duluth News Tribune article, Minnesota lawmakers introduce another bill to thwart wild rice water rules.
Here's the language of HF853 (Wild rice water quality standard application prohibited until conditions are met) which has been referred to the Mining and Outdoor Wrecks committee:
A bill for an act relating to environment; prohibiting application of wild rice water quality
standards until certain conditions are met.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1. WILD RICE WATER QUALITY STANDARDS.
(a) Until the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency adopts the rules required under Laws 2011, First Special Session chapter 2, article 4, section 32, designating waters containing natural beds of wild rice that are subject to wild rice water quality standards, the commissioner shall not:
(1) apply the wild rice water quality standard for sulfate in class 4A waters to any waters, including incorporating the standard or any requirements based on the standard within any permits, compliance schedules, orders, or other control documents; or
(2) list waters containing natural beds of wild rice as impaired for sulfate under section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act, United States Code, title 33, section 1313.
(b) For the purposes of this section, "waters containing natural beds of wild rice" has the meaning given in Laws 2011, First Special Session chapter 2, article 4, section 32, paragraph (b).
Authored by Jason Metsa (DFL-Virginia), the bill is not scheduled to be heard in Mining and Outdoor Wrecks this week.
Myers reported the dirty details:
The bill would prohibit the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency from listing wild rice waters and applying the state's 40-year-old sulfate standard for wild rice until that standard is upheld by a current scientific review and re-adopted by the agency.
The bill specifically prevents the PCA from including the 10 parts-per-million sulfate standard to protect wild rice in any industrial permit issued until the ongoing sulfate study and reassessment is complete.
The PCA is nearing the end of a multiyear effort to determine whether the sulfate standard is needed to protect wild rice and, if so, what lakes and rivers the standard should apply to.
Northern Minnesota lawmakers have complained in recent weeks that the PCA has been including the sulfate standard in draft permits for mining companies even though the evaluation of the standard, ordered by lawmakers in 2011, is not yet complete.
Some mining industry leaders recently told Iron Range lawmakers that their ability to compete with a glut of cheap, foreign iron ore and finished steel could be compromised if Minnesota enforces the sulfate standard.
But Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, said the bill is an end run around scientific review of wild rice protections. Similar legislation proposed in 2011 was panned by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a legislative overreach and a likely violation of the federal Clean Water Act. Lawmakers can't simply undo water quality regulations already adopted under the act, it was noted.
"This legislation would roll back current water quality standards,'' Morse said in a statement. "We think our wild rice and our water deserve better — rules based on fact, not suspended through power politics. Our wild rice legacy depends on it." . . . .
We'll have more about this story as it develops.
Screengrab: Wild rice harvester Winona LaDuke, an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Reservations, testified against the bill.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen P.O. Box 108, Maynard MN 56260) or use the paypal button below:
Email subscribers can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen at gmail.com as recipient.
Comments