At the Star Tribune, Josephine Marcotty reports in Minnesota Pollution Control Agency bails on effort to protect wild rice:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will turn to the Legislature for guidance.
The state of Minnesota is bailing on its effort to devise a plan to protect wild rice from pollution that comes from taconite mines and wastewater treatment plants, ending a nearly 10-year political and legal fight over Minnesota’s official state grain.
The MPCA plans to withdraw from the rule-making process, and will now turn to the Legislature for guidance on how to move forward.
That should end well. In some alternative universe. Here's what the legislature is up to:
More recently, Republican lawmakers proposed a bill [that would require the MPCA to start over, while also forbidding the agency from enforcing the current standard.
In short, as we've been reporting for weeks, no standard at all. Here's the video of the debate over wild rice water quality standards from Monday:
Photo: People harvest wild rice.
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