While lead kills swans and loons, Senate GOP environment chair Bill In­ge­brigt­sen stalls funding

The stories cross our social media feed, with headlines like Bring Me the News' More than a dozen swans have died at Twin Cities lake; Lead poisoning is the suspected cause of death.

Lead is poison.

On Saturday, Tony Kennedy reported in the Star Tribune article, Plan to push loon-friendly fishing tackle snagged at Capitol; Fi­nance chair in Senate has de­layed dol­lars:

A state Senate fi­nance chair­man has blocked the flow of $1.27 mil­lion in fed­er­al grant mon­ey for loon con­ser­va­tion, delay­ing a Min­ne­so­ta plan to re­duce the use of lead fish­ing tack­le.

Sen. Bill In­ge­brigt­sen, R-Al­ex­an­dri­a, said he won’t stop the grant mon­ey and mere­ly wants to edu­cate mem­bers of his En­vi­ron­ment and Nat­u­ral Resources Fi­nance Committee. But the in­defi­nite stop­page has irked fel­low legis­la­tors and the Min­ne­so­ta Pol­lu­tion Control Agency (MPCA). The mon­ey is for a pub­lic a­ware­ness cam­paign to en­cour­age an­glers to switch from lead sink­ers and jigs to nontoxic al­ter­na­tives.

“The MPCA doesn’t under­stand why the hold hasn’t been lift­ed since loon con­ser­va­tion is a common-sense pri­or­i­ty for every Min­ne­so­tan,’’ stat­ed a news re­lease from MPCA Com­mis­sion­er Lau­ra Bish­op’s of­fice.

In­ge­brigt­sen said he’ll re­lease the mon­ey af­ter hold­ing a com­mit­tee hear­ing. But state Rep. Rick Han­sen, D-South St. Paul, has pre­pared a bill to un­lock the mon­ey, if ne­ces­sary.

“For gosh sakes this is a­bout the BP oil spill and loons,’’ said Han­sen, In­ge­brigt­sen’s House coun­ter­part.

MPCA seni­or adviser Darin Broton said de­tails of the MPCA’s “Get the Lead Out” cam­paign have been pub­lic since be­fore Sept. 25, when the ap­pli­ca­tion was made to the U.S. Fish & Wild­life Service. A lar­ger fed­er­al ap­pro­pri­a­tion for loon hab­i­tat work in Min­ne­so­ta was ac­cept­ed last month with­out ques­tion. Both grants de­rive from a na­tion­al set­tle­ment over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexi­co.

DNR re­tir­ee Car­rol Hen­der­son, who worked years to secure a share of those funds, said he can’t recall an­oth­er time when Min­ne­so­ta “turned down’’ sig­nifi­cant fed­er­al grants for fish and wild­life con­ser­va­tion.

Indeed. And loons aren't the only waterfowl that suffer from lead poisoning, although this " na­tion­al set­tle­ment over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexi­co" is directed at helping Minnesota's state bird, which winters in the Gulf where the oil spoil occurred.

Follow the other money

For the Minnesota Nice version of this story, go read Kristi Marohn's tale at Minnesota Public Radio, Effort aims to persuade Minn. anglers to go lead-free for loons.

Kennedy reports that a need to educate his peers might not be the only reason In­ge­brigt­sen is stalling:

Hen­der­son and Han­sen both said they sus­pect the hold­up is re­lated to in­dus­try op­po­si­tion to pro­grams that dis­cour­age the use of lead in hunt­ing am­mu­ni­tion and fish­ing gear. Federal Am­mu­ni­tion is a ma­jor em­ploy­er in Ano­ka. In ad­di­tion, gun rights ac­tiv­ists say lead am­mu­ni­tion is un­der at­tack by anti-hunt­ing groups.

In­ge­brigt­sen said lead has noth­ing to do with his in­ter­rup­tion of the fund­ing. He met with Bish­op at the Capitol on Dec. 13 to air his con­cern that the MPCA might use the grant to add per­ma­nent em­ploy­ees.

“It just nev­er ends. I want­ed to hold their feet to the fire,’’ In­ge­brigt­sen said. “It has re­al­ly dust­ed ev­er­y­bod­y up a little bit.’’

Broton said the a­gen­cy an­swered the sen­a­tor’s ques­tions and has been wait­ing for him to sched­ule a hear­ing and move on.

The grant could have start­ed Jan. 1 to fund state­wide ed­u­ca­tion and out­reach events, the MPCA said. Based on DNR field work and University of Min­ne­so­ta ex­am­in­ations of dead loons, Hen­der­son said it’s pos­si­ble that 100 to 200 loons die per year from lead pois­on­ing. The birds in­gest sink­ers and jigs when they con­sume grit on lake bot­toms to help them di­gest food. The same phenomena is kill­ing swans.

Kennedy mentions that gun rights folks have opposed limitations on lead use by sports people. He doesn't bring up a bill Ingebrigtsen co-sponsored in 2017. Let's take the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action's word for it in Minnesota: Bill to Prevent the Prohibition of Lead Shot Needs to be Scheduled for Committee Action:

Recently, Senate File 263 was offered by state Senator Justin Eichorn (R-05) and co-sponsored by state Senators Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-08), Mark Johnson (R-01), Andrew Lang (R-17) and Thomas Bakk (DFL-03).  This bi-partisan bill would prohibit the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources from limiting the use of lead shot in Minnesota.  Last year, your NRA-ILA fought on every level to prevent the DNR from imposing a ban in certain wildlife and wetland areas. SF 263 is exactly what your NRA-ILA was urging the legislature to do before they adjourned.  . . .

As we have seen with attempts to ban the use of lead ammunition in other states, arguments in favor of these bans are based on faulty science.  It is important to fully understand the facts concerning traditional hunting ammunition so Minnesotans are not misled into adopting a ban that could negatively impact the rich hunting heritage of Minnesota.  There has been no sound scientific evidence stating that traditional ammunition is having a population-level impact on any species in Minnesota.  To ensure proper conservation of species, wildlife must be managed with a fact-based approach. . . .

The Raptor Center and the National Eagle Center might disagree, but who listens to those dirty hippies, anyway.

Nice move by former Majority Leader Bakk there as well.

Usually, we don't recommend that readers check out the comments on news articles at the Strib. This time, though, they're worth a glance. Some examples (we've deleted the anonymous handles):

Sen. Bill In­ge­brigt­sen, R-Al­ex­an­dri­a was slow on getting on board fighting CWD and look where that got us. Too bad actions like that, politicians don't suffer the consequences and get replaced. Time to start weaning ourself of lead fishing equipment.

So Bill In­ge­brigt­sen is refusing to allow federal money to be used to educate people in Minnesota about using non toxic substitutes for fishing tackle that is readily available?  This is perfect example of a politician doing what special interests want instead of what is best for the public and the state of Minnesota.

. . .  I’m 60 years old and was there when the first steel shot was required. It was awful but we got over it. It’s 2020 and time we stop using lead. I’m not far left or right, but anything we can do to help wildlife I’m all for it

Another commenter claims Sheriff Bill campaigned for office against getting the lead out. We'll look into that and let readers know what we find. Ingebrigtsen's district is deep red, so removing him from the chair of this committee may come down to flipping the state senate.

Related posts:

• The unbearable burden of being Draz when a constituent emails about bald eagles & lead shot
• Lead shot debate: bald eagles keep dying and here's what the MN House had to say about it
• MN rep says lead is a-okay because it's natural; or, poisoning is life on Planet Josh Heintzeman
• The Timberjay on lead: Heintzeman may be a loon, but he has plenty of company in St. Paul
• Save an eagle or hawk: thirteen-year-old girl bagged eight-point buck with copper shot

Photo: Dead trumpeter swan. Vadnais Lake Area Water Management Organization via Bring Me the News.

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