A month ago, Fox 9's Tim Blotz reported Report: Potentially dangerous nitrate levels found in some Minnesota drinking water. The study was released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).At the time, the New Ulm Journal reported Report says 150,000 Minnesotans drinking water above legal nitrate limit.
A week later, the Alexandria Echo Press mentioned the EWG report in State updates fertilizer restriction map in advance of new rule:
. . .A report released last week by the Environmental Working Group, an environmentalist nonprofit, found that thousands of Minnesotans are drinking from water sources contaminated with potentially unsafe levels of nitrate.
It found the most contaminated systems and wells are located in southeastern, southwestern and central Minnesota, where EWG says the soil and geology make it easier for nitrate to seep into groundwater.
“Minnesota’s new nitrate rule is a necessary, important first step, but much more needs to be done – and soon,” said Anne Weir Schechinger, EWG senior economic analyst and the report’s co-author.
To view the vulnerable groundwater area map, go to tinyurl.com/wt26cch
But in a Minnesota Legislative Subcommittee on Minnesota Water Policy meeting on Monday night, Hanska Republican Paul Torkelson, who raises grain and hogs at his farm in Watonwan County, objected to the EWG being asked to testify to the subcommittee at all, then objected to the way the EWG described certain standards.
Listen to the exchange on the audio archive here, beginning around the 17:03 mark. (We'll post a transcript later tonight.)
Torkelson calls the group "extreme" and "anti-agriculture." That description would align him with Richard Berman's Activist Facts page on the group; the site is a product of the anti-environmental Center for Organizational Research and Education. Wikipedia notes:
The Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE), formerly the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and prior to that the Guest Choice Network, is an American non-profit entity founded by Richard Berman that lobbies on behalf of the fast food, meat, alcohol and tobacco industries. It describes itself as "dedicated to protecting consumer choices and promoting common sense."[2] Experts on non-profit law have questioned the validity of the group's non-profit status in The Chronicle of Philanthropy and other publications,[3][4] while commentators from Rachel Maddow to Michael Pollan have treated the group as an entity that specializes in astroturfing.[5]
As we noted last year in GreenSeam, an initiative of Greater Mankato Growth, invites Rick Berman as keynote speaker, that pro- tobacco etc perspective had an invitation to Southern Minnesota last year, but we don't know if that's how Torkelson developed his talking points.
Here are the Environmental Working Group presentations from the subcommittee's page, converted from slideshows to PDFs:
MN Nitrate Trends uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
EWG Nitrate Groundwater Report Slides uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd:
Photo: Representative Paul Torkelson, photo by Don Davis, Forum Communications.
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