Last Sunday, Star Tribune outdoors columnist Dennis Anderson reported in Unregulated farm tiling puts state's waters at risk
Subsurface tiling has been around a long time, with early iterations made of concrete and clay. The difference today is the relative speed and ease with which plastic tiling can be positioned underneath a farm field, and the speed also with which it can rush water from a field’s surface to the nearest stream, ditch or lake.
When this happens, unless the water is held back by technologies that to date have gained too little traction among farmers, levels of the receiving waterway can rise significantly, sometimes by 5 feet or more. In many cases, these water-level jumps wipe out aquatic vegetation that fish and some wildlife species, among them ducks, need to survive.
This rush of water also carries with it various farmland chemicals that in many cases end up in the Gulf of Mexico, where they contribute to the huge “dead zone’’ at the mouth of the Mississippi.
If you think a practice like pattern tiling is regulated in Minnesota, given its impact on public waterways and other resources, you’d be wrong.
In fact, except for a single soil and water conservation district in western Minnesota, the amount of tile laid in the state isn’t even documented, and probably never will be, given the power that farmers and farm groups wield at the Capitol in St. Paul. . . .
This is regulatory capture gone mad. Regulatory capture, by the way, is defined as:
Regulatory capture is a form of government failure which occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.[1] When regulatory capture occurs, the interests of firms or political groups are prioritized over the interests of the public, leading to a net loss for society. Government agencies suffering regulatory capture are called "captured agencies".
The speed and breadth with which pattern tiling installation has been undertaken across much of farmland Minnesota is no secret to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and to the state Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR). It’s no secret as well that, while the state on one hand is making sincere and in many cases effective attempts to clean up waterways and to slow down rain and other runoff, pattern tiling nonetheless continues unabated, and unrestricted.
Ditto for that matter the increasingly dire outcomes of water mismanagement in and around the Twin Cities, where storm-water retention ponds in many cases have replaced the shallow lakes and wetlands that once distilled rain water as it seeped into to the metro’s increasingly stressed aquifers.
All of which would seem to have political, if not regulatory, consequences, given that the actions of a minority of citizens (farmers/developers) so adversely affect resources belonging to a majority of Minnesotans.
Over the weekend, Anderson followed up with Stance on farm tiling issue in Minnesota generated strong response. He began:
Last Sunday I published on these pages a column about farmland drainage and specifically about pattern tiling, which has become commonplace throughout Minnesota in recent decades to the detriment, I said, of many rivers, lakes and lands.
I also wrote that these and other challenges can’t be met effectively in Minnesota because the state’s conservation delivery model is ineffectual, in part because top staff of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Board of Water and Soil Resources (and by implication, the Pollution Control Agency) toil — some reluctantly, others less so — in the shadows of overlording politicians.
Unless this model is changed, I said, Minnesota’s natural resources will continue to degrade. Better, I said, to establish in law — as many other states have — a Citizens Conservation Commission of perhaps seven members, serving rotating terms and representing all regions of the state, to set conservation policy and to run interference for its implementation.
I didn’t ask for readers to write to me in response to the column. But many did . . .
Most responses nodded in agreement with Anderson. Among those who didn't were:
Warren Formo, executive director for the Minnesota Agriculture Water Resource Center in Eagan: Pattern tiling allows drainage to be accomplished with less environmental impact when compared to drainage systems of the early 1900s. Tile lines are laid out to follow field contours, and when properly arranged and installed they contribute to soil health. Many of the most productive soils in the Midwest do not have the ability to drain naturally, starving the microorganisms in the soil of oxygen. This in turn affects nutrient cycling in the soil and can reduce crop productivity, which is important in returning organic matter to the soil to continue the cycle. Yields in Minnesota continue to set records due to many factors including better genetics, improved nutrient application practices, and improved drainage design that contributes to improved soil health. ...
Bill Bond, executive director for the Minnesota Crop Production Retailers in Maple Grove: The folks in agriculture are the backbone of hunting in Minnesota. You really slapped us in the face. Lobbing hand grenades may be entertaining. But some readers will actually think you know what you are writing about. (These are my opinions and not necessarily those of the board or members of the Minnesota Crop Production Retailers.) . ..
The Minnesota Agriculture Water Resource Center describes itself on its website:
The Minnesota Agriculture Water Resources Center (MAWRC) is a research and education organization comprised of the primary farm organizations in Minnesota, working together to identify and address water issues. Since our inception in 2008, MAWRC programs have evolved in response to constantly evolving water concerns, but the one constant is our commitment to providing useful information to Minnesota farmers and ranchers. ...
The list of member organizations includes the Minnesota Crop Production Retailers. Just as interesting? The Sponsors, which include a tile manufacturer, Monsanto, Koch Agronomic Services, Syngenta--and the Minnesota Crop Production Retailers.
It's no wonder we saw this exchange on twitter Sunday:
A couple of Lobbyist/think tank responses show the extent of regulatory capture in our state
— Rep. Rick Hansen (@reprickhansen) April 2, 2018
Photo: Pattern tiling. It's not my grandfather's tiling (seriously, my grandfather Sorensen ran a ditching crew composed of fellow Danish immigrants).
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