Bluestem Prairie

MN state rep Tom Murphy to save consumers from livestock mRNA vaccination conspiracies

The screenshot at the top of this post is from a Legislative Update email that Bluestem received on Friday from Tom Murphy, an Ottertail and Douglas County first-term Republican from Underwood:

I am working on legislation that will be introduced to study the effects MNRA vaccines have on our livestock. There have been conflicting reports on how these gene therapies affect the animals and whether those effects can be passed on to humans that consume them. This will be important information to have when considering regulations that may be added around these meats and to protect consumers. I have met with the Commissioner of Ag on this bill as it would have them oversee the U of M conducting this study.

Murphy, who has worked in the ag industry for most of his life, appears to be going down the anti-vax road paved by far-right, anti-vaccination conspiracy theory and fake news website Natural News and other less-than-reliable media sites. 

Vaccines are a well-established tool for livestock farmers.

After looking at the floundering of similar legislation in other states--and the material debunking the conspiracy theory in the ag press, Bluestem can only hope Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen doesn't follow Murphy down this path. 

Indeed, a competent University of Minnesota scholar--whether faculty or undergraduate student--can probably come up with a valuable literature review on the topic in half a day. Certainly would be a conservative use of the agriculture research budget.

What's the rumpus?

Natural News reported Thursday in Big Pharma wants livestock animals to be injected with mRNA, but Missouri, North Dakota, Idaho, Tennessee and Arizona are proposing legislation to stop it:

The threat of mRNA-tainted meat derived from animals given mRNA “vaccines” getting into the food supply is now so serious that at least five states are proposing legislation to ban it or at least require mandatory labeling so consumers know what they are purchasing and eating.

Missouri was the first to break headlines on this front with the introduction of House Bill 1169, followed by similar bills filed in North Dakota, Tennessee, Arizona, and Idaho.

In Idaho, House Bill 154 would make it a misdemeanor offense for anyone to provide or administer a vaccine containing mRNA technology “for use in an individual or any other mammal in this state.” In other words, mRNA tainted meat would become illegal in Idaho in the event that House Bill 154 is passed and signed into law.

Arizona House Bill 2762 would require conspicuous labeling of all aquatic, livestock, or poultry products derived from animals given mRNA jabs. HB 2762 would also prohibit any mRNA-tainted food product from being labeled organic.

Tennessee House Bill 0099 would amend an existing law to prohibit the manufacture or sale of livestock or meat that contains mRNA “vaccine or vaccine materials” without a prominent label that consumers can clearly and easily read.

North Dakota legislators have proposed Senate Bill 2384, which like Idaho’s House Bill 154 would make it illegal to use an mRNA vaccine in humans, as well as introduce a penalty for anyone who violates the law in this regard.

Then there is HB 1169 in Missouri, which was introduced by Republican state Rep. Holly Jones, which would require all livestock meat containing “potential gene therapy products” to be labeled as such. . . .

How's that going? Missouri? Reporting for Progressive Farmer, Todd Neeley reported on April 24 in Missouri Gene Therapy Bill Voted Down:

A bill at the center of a vaccine controversy in the state of Missouri was voted down in a committee of the state's house of representatives this week.

The Missouri House Committee on Emerging Issues voted 10-4 against HB1169 on Wednesday, effectively ending the bill's chance for passage in the current session.

Among many other stipulations, the bill would have required all beef derived from Missouri cattle to include labels detailing vaccines cattle received throughout their life. HB1169 also would have applied to commodities produced using GMO corn and soybeans.

DTN reported earlier this week that HB1169 was at the center of several conspiracies circulating on social media.

That includes a theory that messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines were set for commercial use by livestock producers beginning in May. Livestock mRNA vaccines have been in development for years, but none are currently licensed for use.

According to the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, the legislation would have devalued Missouri cattle.

"This was the most poorly drafted piece of legislation I have seen in my career," MCA Executive Vice President Mike Deering, said in a statement. "If passed, this careless piece of legislation would have devalued Missouri agricultural commodities for absolutely no reason. Given that 98% of the calves in Missouri are exported to other states for finishing and processing, this legislation truly would have been a train wreck for Missouri cattle producers."

According to the Missouri Soybean Association, meat derived from livestock fed corn or soybeans would have been required to be labeled as "potential gene therapy."

In addition to MCA and the Missouri Soybean Association, the legislation was also opposed by the Missouri Corn Growers Association, Missouri Pork Producers, Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Chamber of Commerce and other interests.

"This anti-science legislation would have exponentially driven up food prices, set up the potential for massive lawsuits and had a chilling effect on economic development in the state," according to a letter from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Arizona, Tennessee and other states to require package labels on products made using so-called "gene therapy" techniques.

The bill doesn't mention mRNA vaccine technology at all but would require such labels on vaccines of all kinds as well as GMO foods, for example.

Gene therapy is a field of medicine that focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce therapeutic effects, or the treatment of diseases by repairing defective genetic material.

In fact, there are gene therapy drugs on the market.

HB1169 defines "gene therapy product" as "any product with any capacity to alter, interfere with, or otherwise act in any manner similar or equivalent to genes."

According to the bill, "Any product that has been created to act as, or exposed to processes that could result in the product potentially acting as, a gene therapy or that could otherwise possibly impact, alter, or introduce genetic material or a genetic change into the user of the product, individuals exposed to the product, or individuals exposed to others who have used the product shall be conspicuously labeled with the words 'Potential Gene Therapy Product' unless the product is known to be a gene therapy product."

HB1169 would allow Missouri residents to make written requests to "any entity" that "produces, sells, or distributes a product in this state with the capacity to infect an individual with a disease or to expose an individual to genetically modified material, including, but not limited to, vaccines, gene therapies, drugs, and medical interventions, shall provide any and all information related to the ways in which individuals who did not directly obtain or use such product may be exposed to the product or a component of the product."

As for Idaho, the American Medical Association's JAMA Network weighed in with Physicians Say an Idaho House Bill That Would Criminalize Administering mRNA Vaccines Is an Attack on the Medical Profession—Even If It Doesn’t Become Law.

While the legislation didn't pass, it did win an award from guest columnists at Minnesota Reformer's sibling, the Idaho Capital Sun, bestowed in Here’s our 11th annual ‘F.L.U.B.’ and ‘B.I.L.E.’ awards from Idaho’s 2023 legislative session:

Jerry: Finally, our “best in show” B.I.L.E. goes to Rep. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, for her two bills that would have made it illegal for anyone to administer a vaccine using mRNA technology (e.g., COVID vaccines) into an individual or livestock.

Carrie: In her second bill, she removed the part about livestock due to objections from Idaho ranchers.

Jerry: As a retired rancher, I’m relieved. I need to vaccinate my cow against COVID because she just won’t keep her mask on.

In North Dakota? No better luck. KFYRTV reported in ND House says ‘no’ to studying vaccines:

North Dakota lawmakers won’t be studying the efficacy of mRNA vaccines.

In January, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 2384 to criminalize the administration of mRNA vaccines. In February, the bill was changed to a study. And this week, it was defeated in the House of Representatives by a vote of 38-53. The issue prompted lots of debate. . . .

Public health officials say mRNA vaccines are safe and effective. Lawmakers also voted down House Bill 1200, which would’ve prevented public colleges and universities from requiring COVID vaccines for students. They passed House Bill 1502, which would have prevented hospitals from denying patients care based on their vaccination status.

The Forum reported in North Dakota House rejects proposed study of vaccines:

North Dakota lawmakers won't be studying vaccines for COVID-19.

The state House of Representatives on Tuesday, April 4, killed Senate Bill 2384 by Sen. Jeff Magrum, R-Hazelton, in a 38-53 vote. The bill was for an optional 2023-24 interim legislative study of "the long-term health effects on human beings of vaccines" for respiratory syncytial virus and of messenger RNA vaccines.

The House Human Services Committee had given the bill a 7-6 "do not pass" recommendation.

Supporters said the topic is worthy of study and would include experts' information. Opponents said the issue is best studied by others with expert knowledge.

"What is a legislative interim committee going to come up with, with this? Nothing," Rep. Todd Porter, R-Mandan, told the House panel Monday. . . .

Read the rest at the Forum.

Arizona House Bill 2762 was "held" (passed) by the Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee and received a second reading in the Arizona House. It's estimated the Arizona legislature will adjourn on May 3.

Tennessee House Bill 0099 was signed by the governor on April 25; however the text of the bill Governor Bill Lee signed dealt with raising per diems. 

Tennessee's 0099 bill is actually Senate Bill 0099; its companion bill, House Bill 0299, was withdrawn on January 30. We're not sure if that's the end of it.

Fact checks and ag industry media responses

Those who see mRNA technology as some evil scheme to control populations probably won't trust the news in fact checks about this issue. Here are two for those whose criticial thinking skills are stronger than those possessed by Representative Murphy. 

In mid-April, Angelo Fichera reported for the Associated Press in No, farmers aren’t required to vaccinate livestock with mRNA vaccines:

CLAIM: Farmers and ranchers are required to inject livestock with mRNA vaccines.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. There is no mandate in the U.S. that livestock receive certain vaccines and there are no COVID-19 mRNA vaccines licensed for animals, as some online have suggested.

THE FACTS: Both messenger RNA, or mRNA, and RNA are natural, essential components of all living cells. The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA to instruct cells to create a spike protein to fight the disease.

But the vaccines have been a consistent subject of misinformation since they debuted in late 2020.

Social media posts in recent days have falsely asserted that farmers are required to vaccinate livestock with such vaccines and baselessly suggested that unsuspecting humans will therefore consume the immunizations.

“I just recently read that farmers and ranchers are being told that they must inject their livestock with the mRNA vaccine,” a man in an Instagram video claims. “What temperature do I need to cook my cow in order to get rid of the mRNA death jab vaccine thing?”

Experts, industry groups and officials say there are no such requirements.

“There is no requirement or mandate that producers vaccinate their livestock for any disease,” U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson Marissa Perry said in an email. “It is a personal and business decision left up to the producer and will remain that way.”

Jason Menke, a National Pork Board spokesperson, said in a statement that the “decision to use vaccines and other medical treatments to protect animal health and well-being are made by the farmer under the direction of the herd veterinarian.”

In terms of COVID-19 specifically, there are no licensed mRNA vaccines against that disease for animals, Perry said.

Some animals, particularly those in zoos considered susceptible, have received vaccines against COVID-19. But those immunizations do not rely on mRNA technology, said Suresh Kuchipudi, a veterinary scientist and chair of emerging infectious diseases at Penn State University.

Experts also say there are no animal vaccines currently licensed in the U.S. against any disease that use the same mRNA approach as humans’ COVID-19 vaccines, which entails delivering the mRNA by using a fatty coating called lipid nanoparticles — though some are being researched.

There are some animal vaccines that use other RNA platforms. The pharmaceutical company Merck has for several years offered a customizable vaccine using what it calls “RNA particle technology”; the company creates vaccines against the flu and other viruses in pigs to protect a specific herd as needed. That approach predates the advent of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

The notion that mRNA vaccines would be transmissible through animal consumption — much less cause harm to the consumer — is not rooted in scientific evidence, experts told The Associated Press

“The messenger RNA is extremely fragile,” Kuchipudi said, and is typically gone within days of receipt. “The chance of the mRNA being transferred, even hypothetically, is extremely unlikely.”

Paulo Verardi, an associate professor of virology and vaccinology at the University of Connecticut, agreed and added in an email that cooking would further accelerate the process of degradation.

Moreover, regulators licensing vaccines for food animals require something called a “withdrawal time,” said Alan Young, a professor of veterinary and biomedical science at South Dakota State University.

“Any licensed vaccine comes with a minimum time before you’re allowed to actually have that animal to enter the food chain,” said Young, who is also the founder of veterinary vaccine company Medgene.

Menke, of the National Pork Board, said “there are no food safety concerns with vaccines, including those developed with RNA technology. Pork from vaccinated animals is safe to consume as vaccines are not present when pigs enter the food supply.”

“Vaccines are critical to preserving animal health and well-being, keeping the food supply safe, and protect U.S. livestock from emerging and foreign diseases,” he said.

In a fact check for USA Today, BrieAnna J. Frank reported Fact check: False claim cows, pigs will start getting mRNA vaccine in April 2023:

An April 3 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a screenshot of a tweet that asserts a major change is coming to the U.S. food supply. 

“BREAKING NEWS: the lobbyists for the cattleman and pork associations in several states have CONFIRMED they WILL be using mRNA vaccines in pigs and cows THIS MONTH,” reads the start of the tweet. “WE MUST SUPPORT #Missouri #HB1169. It is LITERALLY the ONLY chance we have to prevent this.” 

The original tweet was shared more than 25,000 times.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said there are no mRNA vaccines approved for cows. All vaccines are given to animals at the discretion of their owners, and there is no change coming to the policy in April 2023, the department said.  . . .

Not vaccinating animals would invite a host of problems, according to Alan Young, a professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences at South Dakota State University and the chief technology officer for veterinary vaccine developer Medgene Labs.

“Vaccines are a critical tool in animal health to maintain healthy animals, which is what you want for food consumption,” Young said.

Vaccines animals receive vary by factors including their species and surroundings, according to one expert.

“Veterinarians consider the animals, environment and health challenges for specific animals or groups of animals when choosing vaccines, so not all pigs from all farms receive the same vaccines,” said Abbey Cannon, director of public health and communications for the American Association of Swine Veterinarians. 

All vaccines used for food animals “undergo strict safety and quality evaluations,” Cannon said. . . .

Read the rest at USA Today.

Let's hope Representative Murphy doesn't waste staff time and taxpayer money on introducing a bill to fund a study of this malarky. As we found preparing this post, there's nothing to fear here other than fear itself.

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• Scott Jensen to speak--again--at "vaccine awareness" Global Health Freedom Summit

Screengrab: The beginning of a April 28, 2023 Legislative Update email that Bluestem received on Friday from Representative Tom Murphy, R-Underwood

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Marshall Independent: Sen. Kunesh addresses Upper Sioux Agency State Park land transfer

Bluestem's been covering bills in the Minnesota legislature to return Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Upper Agency Dakota/ Yellow Medicine Community in posts from Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer clears first MN House committee hearing to Bill author not buying Gary Dahms' alternate reality about Upper Sioux Agency Park transfer.

At the Marshall Independent, Deb Gau interviewed Senator Mary Kunesh about the bill, reporting back in New Brighton state senator talks support for Upper Sioux park transfer:

 The land that is now part of the Upper Sioux Agency State Park is more than just a park, state Sen. Mary Kunesh said.

“I think the first, most important thing is to acknowledge that these are sacred lands,” said Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton.

Kunesh is the chief author of one of the bills in the Minnesota Legislature that would start the process of transferring ownership of Upper Sioux Agency State Park lands to the Upper Sioux Community.

Kunesh spoke with the Independent about how she came to carry the bill in the Senate. Kunesh said it wasn’t appropriate for the Upper Sioux Agency lands to be used as a recreational area.

The proposed park transfer was a topic that drew a large crowd to an informational meeting in Granite Falls earlier this month. Speakers at the meeting, including Upper Sioux Community Tribal Chairman Kevin Jensvold said land included in the park was both sacred, and part of historic treaty land.

At the meeting, area legislators pointed out that the park transfer bills moving through the legislature were authored by lawmakers from other parts of the state.

Kunesh represents state Senate District 39, which covers parts of Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. However, as a legislator she has also been active on issues that affect Native Americans.

“I have a lot of background on these issues nationally, locally and statewide,” she said. Kunesh is of Native descent. As a Minnesota state Representative, she was part of efforts that led to the creation of the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office. As a Senator, she also authored a bill strengthening the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act, which was passed this spring.

Kunesh said she was asked about carrying the Upper Sioux Agency State Park transfer bill early in January. But, she said, “This is not new information, from what I understand.”

The Upper Sioux Community and Chairman Jensvold had been talking with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Historical Society about a possible land transfer for a number of years, Kunesh said.

“It did not come out of the blue,” she said.

At the public information meeting in Granite Falls, DNR Southern Region Director Scott Roemhildt also said Jensvold had repeatedly asked that the park lands be returned to the Upper Sioux Community.

Kunesh said she didn’t think returning the park lands to the Upper Sioux Community would be setting a precedent. There have already been other pieces of land returned to Native American tribes, she said. In some cases, tribes have also bought land back.

Kunesh said so far, other state legislators have shown interest in hearing about the park transfer. . . .

This bill is likely to happen,” Kunesh said of the land transfer proposal.

But there would still be a lot of work to do, she said. The park transfer bills require the DNR to identify any possible obstacles to the transfer, along with possible solutions. Funds were also being requested to create a replacement recreation area for the park.

Kunesh said it was important for neighboring community members to learn more about the issue.

“It’s a good time to start to learn and understand both sides of the issue,” she said.

Read the rest at the Marshall Independent.

The bill is included in both the House and Senate versions of the omnibus bills that will be considered beginning Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. by the Environment, Natural Resources, Climate and Energy Conference Committee (HF2310).

Bluestem believes the language will remain in the conference committee report and be passed by both houses of the legislature. We support this change.

Related posts

 

• Bill author not buying Gary Dahms' alternate reality about Upper Sioux Agency Park transfer
• Video & news digest: Granite Falls informational hearing on transferring Upper Sioux Agency State Park to Yellow Medicine Community
• Area legislators to host April 5 community meeting in Granite Falls about transfer of park to Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate.
• Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer clears first MN House committee hearing
• Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer bill heard in two MN Senate committees, 

Photo: State Senator Mark Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton. Kunesh is a Standing Rock Sioux Tribe descendant. Photo by Lisa Miller/for Mary Kunesh for State Senate.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Court documents outline cause of shuttered child porn investigation of T. Denny Sanford

We have nothing to add to this South Dakota Searchlight article, other than our profound loathing of child pornography.

Court documents outline cause of shuttered child porn investigation of T. Denny Sanford
By John Hult

Nearly four years ago, detectives in South Dakota launched an investigation to determine if the state’s richest man had shared or received child pornography through email.

One year ago, then-Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg issued a statement declaring that T. Denny Sanford had committed “no prosecutable offenses within the district of South Dakota.”

On Thursday, after two failed attempts by Sanford at the South Dakota Supreme Court to shield the information that sparked law enforcement scrutiny, the court records outlining the cause of the investigation were finally released to the public.

Those records lay out the discovery of emailed, illicit pornographic imagery that led to the launch of the investigation into the man who founded First Premier Bank and later became South Dakota’s most well-known philanthropist. 

Documents follow Supreme Court loss

The release of the five documents prepared by Jeff Kollars of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) came 22 days after the state Supreme Court ruled that Sanford would not be allowed to review them for redaction and ordered them released.

Stacy Hegge, Sanford’s attorney, sent a statement decrying their release in the absence of additional information from law enforcement, including evidence of hacking and proof that multiple people had “documented access” to Mr. Sanford’s electronic devices. She said the release only serves to sully her client’s good name.

“While some claim releasing affidavits that reiterate these allegations constitute transparency, releasing preliminary allegations made prior to completing the full investigation only misinforms people and obscures the investigation’s conclusions that no prosecutable offense occurred,” Hegge wrote. 

Details on how law enforcement decided that no crimes had occurred or on the source of any “hacking” have not been released. On Thursday, DCI spokesman Tony Mangan reiterated that the agency opted against charging Sanford. At the time of the investigation, current Attorney General Marty Jackley served as Sanford’s defense attorney.

“In 2022, after Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was impeached and suspended, his administration issued a statement that it did not find probable cause for criminal charges in the state of South Dakota,” Mangan wrote.

Cybertip leads to investigation

The first of the five documents was filed on Dec. 9, 2019. In it, DCI Agent Kollars requested a search warrant for data connected to an AOL email account Kollars said likely belonged to Sanford. 

That August, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted the DCI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that an AOL user account contained images of child pornography. Kollars reviewed the tip and found 36 images, discovered on July 9, 2019.

There were “three separate unique images, repeated several times,” showing nude female children between 8 and 15 years old.

The name associated with the AOL account was Denny Sanford, the document says.

In September of that year, the Brookings County State’s Attorney asked for account information from a Verizon phone associated with the images. A call to First Premier Bank led Kollars to learn that the phone was used by Sanford, the owner of the company.

That same day, Jackley, then in private practice, reached out to Kollars to tell him that Sanford “anticipates cooperating with law enforcement, but requested that all further communications go through” Jackley.

The remaining four court documents repeat much of the information contained in the first, with additional details discovered after the DCI received information from the AOL accounts. Each was signed on March 12, 2020, and sought information from Verizon Wireless and Midco.

Kollars had discovered several emails containing photographs, again sent more than once, from a Verizon Samsung Galaxy smartphone in May and June. The smartphone in question, Kollars wrote, “is currently being used by Denny Sanford.”

The documents also note that the IP addresses used to access the email account “have possible subscriber geolocations that include locations in several different states.”

For that reason, Kollars wrote, “I am unable to make an accurate determination regarding the location of the individual who was accessing and using the email account” on the dates in question. 

Similar uncertainty surrounded the geolocations of other emails, possibly tied to “locations in Arizona, Oregon and California.”

Sanford owns homes in Sioux Falls, Scottsdale, Arizona and La Jolla, California, Kollars wrote, but “I also know that it is possible that a user could be remotely accessing computers in those locations from anywhere in the world …”

By the time he wrote the four March documents, Kollars had also reviewed the email address to verify its connections to Sanford. That involved, among other connecting threads, the review of “a letter from the Dalai Lama to T. Denny Sanford thanking him for support for a University of California San Diego T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion,” dated in June of 2019. The email account also included messages with a photo of a hotel receipt that listed Sanford as a guest, photos of Sanford and photos of decorative windows from Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls. 

Revelation of investigation

The documents had been sealed as part of the open investigation, but a reporter for the Argus Leader had learned about and requested them. By the summer of 2020, that outlet and the nonprofit outlet ProPublica petitioned Minnehaha County Judge James Power to release the information in the documents, which he had signed.

Documents with details of open investigations are typically sealed in South Dakota until charges are filed, however. By October of 2020, ProPublica and the Argus Leader argued for the release of warrant information before Power.

Power ruled in favor of the media organizations, but Sanford appealed to the state Supreme Court, which heard arguments in summer of 2021 and ruled against Sanford that fall. That led to the release of the five search warrants themselves, but not the affidavits, which include written law enforcement testimony describing the reason for a warrant request.

Those would remain sealed until the investigation concluded, Power ruled. The media organizations confirmed that the investigation was over in late March of 2022, but Sanford again appealed their release.

The final set of oral arguments before the Supreme Court took place in March on the campus of South Dakota State University. The high court ruled against Sanford on April 5.

Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote that “it is evident that the circuit court viewed Sanford’s most recent motion as a belated and unpersuasive effort to further delay the unsealing of the affidavits required by statute.”

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 

Related post

•  Court: Release T. Denny Sanford court records

Photo: South Dakota Supreme Court Justice Janine Kern gestures as she participates in oral arguments with other justices on March 23, 2023, in Brookings. (David Bordewyk/South Dakota Newspaper Association/ via South Dakota Searchlight).

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Public tells Forest Service to expand proposed mining ban in portion of Black Hills

Minnesota isn't the only state in the upper Midwest where citizens are against mining in beautiful and sensitive natural areas. 

From the South Dakota Searchlight:

Public tells Forest Service to expand proposed mining ban in portion of Black Hills
By Seth Tupper

 Dozens of people told federal officials Wednesday that they not only support a proposed ban on new mining-related activity in a portion of the Black Hills, but also want it expanded.

The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management hosted a four-hour public input meeting at the Rapid City Ramkota Hotel. Beyond the dozens who spoke, hundreds attended, and most appeared to support the proposed mining ban.

The ban would cover about 32 square miles encompassing the Pactola Reservoir and areas of public land upstream that drain into the reservoir via Rapid Creek.

Many speakers said they want the boundaries of the proposed ban expanded to cover more of the Rapid Creek watershed, plus additional watersheds or even the entire Black Hills National Forest.

Some of the speakers expressed concerns about the potential impact of mining on water availability and quality. One of those speakers was Rapid City resident Jay Davis. 

“This is our drinking water. This is our lifeline. Water is life,” Davis said. 

Native Americans from several South Dakota-based tribes shared similar concerns. They also spoke about the potential impact of mining on areas of cultural significance in the Black Hills – a region that figures prominently in Native American history and spirituality.

Doug Crow Ghost spoke on behalf of the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance.

“The Forest Service should impose a moratorium on all mining in the Black Hills,” Crow Ghost said.

A few speakers defended exploration and mining. Larry Mann, who has worked as a lobbyist for mining companies, said all future mining-related activity in the affected area should not be prohibited based on concerns about a current exploratory drilling proposal. He said exploratory drilling rarely locates economically viable deposits, and the number of drilling projects that result in mines is minimal.

“Why are we setting our hair on fire over something that the science even says is unlikely to occur?” Mann said.

Origin of controversy

The current controversy over potential drilling in the Pactola Reservoir area began about four years ago. That’s when Minneapolis-based F3 Gold went public with a plan to conduct exploratory drilling for gold in the Jenney Gulch area of the Black Hills National Forest, within a mile of Pactola. The man-made mountain lake is the largest and deepest reservoir in the Black Hills. It’s also a popular recreation destination and a drinking-water source for Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base.

F3 Gold won draft approval of its drilling plan last year from local Forest Service officials. Then, in March, the national offices of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management announced they’re considering a 20-year ban on new mining-related activity in the Pactola region.

Deputy Regional Forester Jacqueline Buchanan, who is based at a Forest Service office in Colorado, attended Wednesday’s meeting and said the draft approval of the drilling plan was subject to an objection period. It was during that period when she and other Forest Service officials took note of objections regarding water and cultural resources, she said.

“So out of the objection process, the conversations started around whether there are other options we should consider,” Buchanan told South Dakota Searchlight.

The option currently being considered is formally called a “mineral withdrawal,” because it would withdraw an area of public land from eligibility for mining-related activities. Twenty years is the maximum period allowed by federal law, although a mineral withdrawal can be renewed after that. Only Congress can enact a permanent mineral withdrawal on federal land.

Impact on F3 plan

Since federal officials proposed the mineral withdrawal in March, it has been unclear how it would affect F3 Gold, which not only has draft approval of its drilling plan but also has a completed environmental assessment. 

The Forest Service is now saying that the final decision on F3’s drilling plan won’t come anytime soon.

“The Forest Service has postponed issuing a final decision on the Jenney Gulch Gold Exploration Drilling Project,” say documents from the agency released in conjunction with Wednesday’s meeting, “until the environmental analysis and withdrawal process for the requested withdrawal is completed.”

That could take up to two years, which is the maximum “segregation period” while federal officials consider implementing the mineral withdrawal. During the segregation period – which began March 21 – the mineral withdrawal essentially takes effect temporarily while federal officials gather the public input, studies and analysis needed to decide whether the mineral withdrawal should be implemented for a 20-year term. That decision will be made by the secretary of the Department of the Interior (the department oversees the Bureau of Land Management, which manages mining claims on federal land).

Mining has been continuous in the Black Hills since the 1870s, and some past mines have caused extensive water pollution. 

The Homestake Mine in Lead so polluted Whitewood Creek decades ago that the waterway was known colloquially as “Cyanide Creek” before it was cleaned up pursuant to modern environmental regulations. 

The company that owned the Gilt Edge Mine near Lead went bankrupt and abandoned the mine in the 1990s, leaving pits containing a combined 150 million gallons of water laden with lead, arsenic and cadmium. The mine remains under an active cleanup funded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund.

Because of the Black Hills’ long mining history, the region is littered with mining claims staked by prospectors ranging from hobbyists to global conglomerates. The Forest Service says F3 Gold alone has about 800 claims in the proposed mineral withdrawal area.

A mineral withdrawal would only prohibit new claims, but there’s also a process to contest existing claims. If holders of existing claims are unable to show “a discovery of a valuable mineral deposit,” in the official language of the Forest Service, the claims may be declared null and void.

“F3 has active claims in the requested withdrawal area,” says a Forest Service document, “however, it has not been determined whether and how many are supported by the discovery of a valuable mineral deposit.”

Proving the discovery of a valuable mineral deposit is a process of its own, involving certified examiners who analyze maps, samples, data and mine cost models. The Forest Service says any discovery must predate the start of the mineral withdrawal process. 

In other words, for F3 Gold to utilize its mineral claims, the company may have to prove its claims harbor a valuable deposit without being allowed to conduct exploratory drilling.

Scott Haight, of the Bureau of Land Management, attended Wednesday’s meeting and told South Dakota Searchlight it’s “theoretically possible” to prove a valuable mineral deposit without drilling. But he added that “drilling is the usual mechanism for making a discovery.”

What’s ahead

F3 Gold did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. An official representing the company told South Dakota Searchlight by phone that the company is studying the publicly available information about the proposed mineral withdrawal and withholding comment until the company receives further communications from the Forest Service.

The proposed mineral withdrawal is currently subject to a 90-day public comment period that will close June 20. The Forest Service plans to announce additional opportunities for public involvement as the process moves forward.

In the meantime, F3 Gold has other projects, including a proposal for exploratory drilling near Custer that drew vehement opposition during a public meeting earlier this year. 

Several other companies have active exploratory drilling operations or plans for drilling in other areas of the central and northern Black Hills. The region’s only active, large-scale gold mine is the Wharf Mine near Lead.

Beyond gold, activists concerned about water quality in the Black Hills have called attention to a recent proliferation of lithium claims, as companies consider the region’s potential as a source of the material for the electric battery industry.

How to comment on the proposed mineral withdrawal

Electronic comments may be submitted to https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?project=NP-3479. 

Written comments may be submitted to Bryan Karchut, Black Hills National Forest, 1019 N. 5th Street, Custer, SD 57730. 

Comments sent by email will not be accepted.

The deadline to submit comments is June 20.

This article from the South Dakota Searchlight is republished online under  under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 

Related post

• Federal agencies seek to protect Pactola Reservoir and Rapid Creek from mining

Photo: A portion of the Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills. (Seth Tupper/SD Searchlight).

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MN Legacy conference committee differs most on Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund spending

As the Minnesota House and Senate pass omnibus bills, those that are significantly different will be negotiated in conference committees.

The work of these committees in now streamed online.

From Session Daily:

Just $2 million apart, Legacy conference committee opens discussion
By Tessa Pieper

Less than 0.5%.

Conferees on the omnibus Legacy finance bill (HF1999/SF1692), who met for the first time Wednesday learned they aren’t too far apart. House and Senate versions of the bill are separated by a little over 0.25%, or $2.09 million.

The House omnibus bill would appropriate $820.84 million; the Senate version comes in at $818.75 million.

Ratified by voters in 2008, the Legacy amendment splits a 0.375% sales tax increase four ways: 33% to the Clean Water Fund; 33% to the Outdoor Heritage Fund; 19.75% to the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund; and 14.25% to the Parks and Trails Fund.

The two legislative bodies agree on the appropriations for the Outdoor Heritage Fund at $171.79 million.

They nearly agree for the Parks and Trails Fund with the House suggesting $136.61 million and the Senate wanting an additional $4,000 on top of that.

The Clean Water Fund differs by about $1 million with the House at $317.4 million and the Senate at $318.4 million.

It’s the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund where the main differences show, although still slight. The House proposed a $195.05 million appropriation, whereas the Senate planned for a $191.95 million appropriation.

[MORE: Look at the bills side-by-side; View the spreadsheet of the differences]

One major difference is the State Arts Board. It would receive $72 million from the Senate for arts and arts access initiatives, but $39.05 million from the House with a $100,000 carve-out for free access days, a difference of $33.13 million. The House bill would appropriate $36.7 million for regional arts councils, while the Senate bill has no similar appropriation.

A couple House proposals not in the Senate bill include the House’s 2040 goal to have all water reach its designated use and switching the Clean Water Fund’s reporting to be done annually instead of every two years.

Both the spending for children’s museums and how the money is allocated also differ. The House intends to spend $3.39 million in the form of competitive grants and the Senate wants to spend $2.65 million through direct appropriations to named museums.

Some Senate provisions the House does not have include:

• $850,000 for the Changsha Friendship Garden in St. Paul;
• $850,000 to Ramsey County for Keller Regional Park;
• $360,000 for arts and cultural heritage programming celebrating African American and Black communities in Minnesota;
• $550,000 for the Minnesota Council on Disability to provide educational opportunities involving the arts, history, and cultural heritage;
• $154,000 for a veterans memorial park in the city of Wyoming;
• $300,000 for the Great Northern Festival;
• $110,000 for the Camille J. Gage Artist Fellowship; and
• $100,000 for the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities to continue to preserve and raise awareness of the history of Minnesotans with developmental disabilities.

No future meeting has yet been announced.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the meeting:

Related post

•  Session Daily digest: Legacy bill passes House; Ways & Means merges environment & climate omnibus bills

Photo: Rep. Leon Lillie, DFL-North St. Paul, and Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul, confer April 26 prior to the House gaveling in the conference committee on HF1999, the omnibus legacy finance bill. Each chairs the Legacy committee in their respective chambers. (Photo by Andrew Von Bank/Minnesota House Information Service).

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Eleven environmental groups petition EPA on nitrate pollution in Southeast Minnesota water

Water quality has long been an issue in Southeastern Minnesota's karst region, from drinking water issues to fish kills in area streams.

At the Star Tribune, Jennifer Bjorkus reports in Nitrate levels in 8 southeast Minnesota counties near crisis point:

A petition to EPA describes an "imminent and substantial endangerment" to the health of southeast Minnesota residents.

A group of environmental organizations say nitrate pollution in drinking water has reached crisis proportions in southeast Minnesota, and it's time for the feds to step in.

They are taking the unprecedented step in Minnesota of formally requesting the Environmental Protection Agency to take emergency action under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. State and local regulators have failed to lower dangerous nitrate levels in groundwater with voluntary measures that aim to curb pollution from farms, they say.

Southeast Minnesota's groundwater is particularly vulnerable to nitrate pollution because of the many sinkholes and fractures in the porous limestone underlying the region.

"This contamination poses an imminent and substantial threat to human health, and the problem is not getting any better," the groups said in their request submitted Monday.

It's not clear whether the EPA will act on the 98-page request. But the submission itself signals the depth of frustration in Minnesota's karst country with pollution largely traced to farm fertilizers and manure.

Nitrate originating in large-scale agriculture has been one of the state's most aggravating environmental problems. The invisible and odorless acute contaminant has polluted lakes and rivers, aquifers and drinking water wells and continues to force communities to pay for drilling new wells and installing new treatment. In response, the state adopted the Groundwater Protection Rule in 2019, its most comprehensive action to prevent nitrate pollution, though farms continue to expand.

The emergency request was submitted by 11 local and national organizations, led by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, on behalf of residents in eight southeast Minnesota counties. About 80,000 residents in those counties rely on private wells for their drinking water, and about 300,000 people are hooked up to public water systems, according to the request. . . .

The most well-known effect of drinking water with high nitrate is the potentially fatal condition called blue baby syndrome, in which infants are starved of oxygen. Federal regulators imposed a limit at 10 milligrams of nitrate per liter of water several decades ago to guard against that. Newer research links drinking water with lower levels of nitrate to other health effects: colorectal cancer, thyroid disease and neural tube defects. . . .

It's not just groundwater. Winona County also has suffered four fish kills in local rivers in the last decade. Most recently, manure and pesticide runoff killed at least 2,500 fish in Rush Creek, mostly brown trout, near Lewiston. . . .

Read the entire article at the Star Tribune.

Here's the petition, which begins with the names of the organizations petitioning the EPA

Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
Environmental Working Group
Minnesota Well Owners Organization
Center for Food Safety
Clean Up the River Environment (CURE)
Food & Water Watch
Friends of the Mississippi River
Izaak Walton League Minnesota Division
Land Stewardship Project
Minnesota Trout Unlimited
Mitchell Hamline Public Health Law Center

Emergency SDWA Petition to EPA With Exhibits  uploadedby Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Related posts

• How non-point is this: DNR says Rush Creek fish kill likely caused by rainfall-driven runoff
• Winona County citizens, LSP give Walz letter about July 26 Upper Rush Creek fish kill
• MPCA releases draft permit, additional enviro review for Daley Farms in Winona County
•  In the news: ag groups go to court to restrict public comment on dairy during harvest
•  Responsible Agriculture in Karst Country (RAKC) members believe their work is far from over 
•  Packed house at Newburg Township on using local control to protect community, karst 
•  All citizens are equal, but one thinks he's more equal: massive hog farm shareholder* seeks to prevent August 2 Newburgh Township meeting

Photo: Utica, Minnesota. Bjorhous reports:  "mentioned in the request a city of about 250 in Winona County surrounded by dairy farms and rolling fields. It was forced 20 years ago to relegate one of its wells to emergency backup status because of nitrate contamination, according to the submission. But nitrate levels kept creeping up, and reached 8.6 milligrams recently." Photo by Google.

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South Dakota Senators Rounds and Thune sign on to preserve lead poisoning for wildlife

The pair of trumpeter swans that nested on a shallow glacial lake here in Roberts County, South Dakota, has returned. No one fishes or hunts in the shallow lake and the ponds nearby, so the birds should be safe from ingesting lead. 

The Trumpeter Swan Society notes in Top Ten Threats to Trumpeter Swans:

• Fatal lead poisoning

  Did you know a single split shot or lead sinker, or 3 lead pellets can kill a 30 pound swan over a two-three week period? Swans swallow lead fishing tackle or lead pellets in shallow waters where they feed, or lead pellets found in soil where shooting activities have occurred. . . .

How are lawmakers addressing this threat? I've posted about current legislation in the Minnesota House in Could environmental bill be swan song for lead sinkers in some Minnesota lakes?

A federal bill may discourage swan protection in South Dakota.

Down column in Seth Tupper's Congressional Roundup: Thune wants to rein in electric vehicle incentives at the South Dakota Searchlight, there's this item:

Lead ammunition

Rounds and Thune teamed with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, and 22 of their Senate Republican colleagues to introduce a bill that would stop several federal agencies from banning lead ammunition or tackle on public lands in some circumstances.

An exception in the text of the bill says bans could be imposed if field data show that lead ammunition or tackle led to a decline in the wildlife population on the land in question. 

Rounds said in a news release that the bill “keeps the heavy hand of government from interfering with our way of life in South Dakota.” Some hunters prefer to use lead where it’s allowed, including on private land, saying it’s more effective for pheasants and other game. 

Yet South Dakota already requires nontoxic ammunition, such as steel, when hunting some species on public land. 

The bill is partly motivated by a successful lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity that forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin phasing out lead ammunition and tackle at several wildlife refuges. The center says lead can poison endangered animals like whooping cranes that ingest it when feeding in fields and waterways. 

Rounds' news release is online at his webpage here.

Tupper links to Keeping the lead in: Efforts to thwart toxic ammo caught in political crosshairs, an article he reported for the Rapid City Journal in 2014.

Getting the lead out in Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Statement on lead ammunition and tackle outlines the current status of their use in Minnesota.

But legislation to restrict the use of lead ammunition and tackle has been introduced, though its progress is uneven.

On February 24, Bob Timmons reported for the Star Tribune in Bill to ban small lead fishing tackle's sale and use in Minnesota pushed again:

In late January, state Rep. Peter Fischer, DFL-Maplewood, introduced a bill that would ban some small fishing tackle made with lead — similar to legislation he raised last session in concert with DFL Sen. Chuck Wiger's and stacked on that proposed by others in recent years citing lead's deadly effect on wildlife.

Fischer singles out the protection of loons, which can consume jigs and sinkers either in the fish they eat or the metal lost to the water bottoms where the deep-diving birds grab grit and pebbles to help digest their food.

The lawmaker said he expects his bill, HF944, like some others targeting wildlife protection this session, to get a hearing.

Fischer telegraphed disagreement over the economic impact and paying for enforcement of a limited lead tackle ban, but he said he's talked to stakeholders "who want to figure this out."

"They realize there are alternatives out there, things are moving in that direction and people are looking for it. How do we make it happen in a way that is workable and will stick for the future and not be undone by folks who say, we want to go back to lead because it's cheap?"

Findings in 2006 from a Department of Natural Resources-led study of five state walleye fisheries said lead poisoning from ingested fishing items "may be a growing problem." The DNR looked at Rainy Lake, Namakan Reservoir, Leech Lake, Lake Mille Lacs and Lake of the Woods in the summer of 2004. Researchers estimated almost 215,000 pieces of fishing tackle were lost, with more than 100,000 lead pieces that amounted to a metric ton. . . .

The bill wasn't included in the list of bills folded into the environmental omnibus bill.

But other language is in the omnibus environmental, natural resources and energy bill that's in coference committee.

At the end of March, the Chisago County Press reported in Ten years later; lead still a concern:

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Chisago County actively promoting  the message to not use lead tackle.  The county has been behind those collection tubes at boat landings and supports an exchange program to trade-in leaded fishing tackle, for equipment that does not contain lead.  The county Household Hazardous Waste Facility in North Branch makes sure the lead items are disposed of properly.

This practice was embraced as policy in 2012 in order to reduce lead poisoning in fish and wildlife.  Researchers reported that waterfowl and  fish have lead accumulation in their bodies and bloodstreams.

As money came out of the BP gulf petroleum spill settlement,  Chisago County kicked off its “Hook, Line and Sinker’ effort tapping into that fund.  The collection effort and the exchange continue to this day only now it’s known as “Get the Lead Out”  

Chisago County was selected in 2021 along with six other counties in Minnesota to continue to get outside financial aid.  

County Water Resources staffer Monica Kinny says the county gathered 57 pounds of lead tackle in the last two years alone.

Citizens can trade leaded items for lead-free at the Government Center,  or bring a leaded item should you come across a County Water Resources booth at a community celebration or the county fair.

A new piece of legislation working its way through the legislature has a good chance to become law.  And,  trumpeter and tundra swans in particular, will benefit.  Funding earmarked at $1.4 million also could be available for efforts that reduce lead in the swans’ environment.

The bills HF 2368 and SF 2204 give the MN Commissioner of Natural Resources authority to designate swan (resting) protection areas and to prohibit possessing lead items in that area.  The penalties for killing, buying or selling a swan could rise to a gross misdemeanor.  Restitution also increases to $1,000 for a tundra swan and $2,500 for a trumpeter.

Kinney commented that it is “...encouraging people are talking about this (lead) especially at the state level.”

HF 2368 was heard and laid over for possible inclusion in an Omnibus bill later in the session.  It has 14 State Representatives signed on as authors.

HF2368 is in the bill. That's the language reported in Session Daily's Could environmental bill be swan song for lead sinkers in some Minnesota lakes?

On March 29, the pro-lead Sportmen's Alliance sent up an alarm in Minnesota: Lead Ammo Ban Hearing Today! Your Help Needed. Reading beyond the headline, we learn the language bans "the use of traditional lead ammunition on wildlife management areas in the “farmland zone,” a massive area that comprises nearly half the state."

That's fairly deceptive wording, since while the farmland zone may be a "massive area" that's half the state, the public wildlife management areas don't include all that massive area.

The amendment was adopted by the House Environment & Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee as part of the omnibus bill, which was passed by the House. 

Here's hoping the conference committee keeps the anti-lead language in the conference report--and the US Senate bill goes nowhere. While the state and federal bills relate to different acreage, Bluestem is always pleased to learn about getting the lead out.

Related posts:

• Twenty-one conservation groups petition DNR to ban lead tackle, ammunition in state parks, SNAs 
•  Research shows lead from hunters' ammunition is harming North American eagle population
• Getting the lead out permanently: watch girl scout speak up for trumpeter swans 
• Getting the lead out: Minnesota House considering lead fishing tackle, ammunition bills
• MN swans died of lead poisoning, likely from anglers' sinkers; use nontoxic alternatives
• The unbearable burden of being Draz when a constituent emails about bald eagles & lead shot 
• MN rep says lead is a-okay because it's natural; or, poisoning is life on Planet Josh Heintzeman (2017)
• Lead shot debate: bald eagles keep dying and here's what the MN House had to say about it  (2017)

Photo: Adult and juvenile trumpeter swans.  Photo: Gary Minish/Audubon Photography Awards via National Audubon Society, Trumpeter Swan | Audubon Field Guide.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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No controversy as MN House overwhelmingly OKs bill to rename highway after Prince

Bluestem can't resist a good Prince story. The bill was passed on the anniversary of Prince's death. At the time, we heard stories of his kindness to and help for musicians throughout the state.

From Session Daily:

No controversy as House overwhelmingly OKs bill to rename highway after Prince
By Margaret Stevens

Sometimes it snows in April. Sometimes highway signs are purple.

Legislators saw firsthand the truth of Prince’s words on a chilly, overcast Friday before voting overwhelmingly in support of the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway.” Purple signs would be mandated to mark the proposed designation.

Sponsored by Rep. Lucy Rehm (DFL-Chanhassen), HF717 would name a 7-mile stretch of Highway 5 in Eden Prairie and Chanhassen after Minnesota’s musical icon.

Supported by purple-clad legislators of both parties, the bill passed the House 121-0 Friday – the seventh anniversary of Prince’s death – and next goes onto the Senate.

“Prince brought people together not only through his music, but through his advocacy of public library access, education, civil rights, and more,” Rehm said in a statement following the bill’s earlier approval by the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee. “It’s a tremendous privilege to work with Minnesotans and all the advocates to recognize and honor Prince’s contributions to our state, our country, and the world.”

The “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” would run from west from Mitchell Road in Eden Prairie to Highway 41 in Chanhassen, past Prince’s former home and studio, Paisley Park, which is now open to the public.

The bill would also alter the Augie Mueller Memorial Highway honoring the former legislator by moving its eastern border to Highway 41 rather than its current Highway 101. Conversations with Mueller’s family indicated they are amenable to the change in one section of the road.

“We want to keep that highway in his name, but we wanted to designate a section for Prince,” Rehm said.

Private parties have raised the approximately $3,000 needed to pay for the signs and have committed to help pay for maintenance. Purple signs would deviate from standard white on brown prescribed by the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

Sen. Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) said during a Senate Transportation Committee hearing in February she doesn’t believe this would set a precedent, because there isn’t a precedent quite like that of Prince.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the House floor discussion of the bill:

Photo: Holding up a copy of the proposed sign design, and wearing an apt color, Rep. Lucy Rehm discusses HF717, a bill to rename a segment of Highway 5 as “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway.” The bill passed 121-0 Friday. (Photo by Catherine Davis/Session Daily).

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Proposed federal EPA PFAS regulation could cost South Dakota millions for testing, cleanup

Earlier this week, the Minnesota Reformer reported on one piece of the omnibus Environment, Natural Resources, Climate, and Energy budget bill in House passes bill cracking down on chemicals invented by Minnesota’s 3M.

PFAS are hitting the news cylce in South Dakota as well.

Its South Dakota sibling site, South Dakota Searchlight, takes a look at the price of PFAS cleanup in the Rushmore state in Proposed EPA ‘forever chemicals’ regulation could cost SD millions for testing, cleanup. Makenzie Huber reports:

Nearly 100 families living in Box Elder have been drinking bottled water provided by the military for the past five years.

That’s because their water system was contaminated with chemicals used in firefighting foam at nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.

And Sioux Falls has had 21 wells — a significant amount of its water production from the Big Sioux aquifer — shut down for years due to similar contamination from the firefighting foam used at its airport and Air National Guard base. The city and the airport are separately suing chemical makers for the impact on the city’s infrastructure.

The chemicals in both places are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which at certain levels may be associated with a variety of health problems. The chemicals have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s and don’t break down easily or quickly in the environment or in the human body. The chemicals can be found in everything from firefighting foam to children’s clothes to soil to water. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed what would be the first national standard regulating levels of PFAS in drinking water.

Hundreds of utilities already tested across the country have levels of the “forever chemicals” above the proposed limits in their water supplies and would need to build infrastructure to treat their water, or find another source of uncontaminated water to meet the standards. All other public water systems would need to be tested if the standards are approved.

The Ellsworth Development Authority and Sioux Falls were approved for a combined $22 million in drinking water loans from the state last year to address their contaminated water. Those loans are just to cover new water mains and a new well for each site — it doesn’t include the cost of installing technology that could remove the chemicals from Sioux Falls’ existing wells, which could run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Some estimates put the total cost of meeting the proposed regulations for the entire country at around $400 billion, which is more than 200 times the funding made available so far by the federal government to treat PFAS-contaminated water.

The question now is where the rest of the money will come from.

Companies that use the chemicals are already embroiled in lawsuits. Water customers and taxpayers are the next in line to foot the bill, said Jay Gilbertson, manager of the East Dakota Water Development District, based in Brookings.

“The water is only as good as the water needs to be to meet all the standards,” Gilbertson said. “As standards get more stringent, for good health reasons, it probably means we’ll have to pay more for the water. It costs money to take things out of the water — that’ll be the cost of clean drinking water.”

Impacts of stricter regulations on South Dakota

Aside from the Sioux Falls and Ellsworth examples, South Dakota has had at least three other instances of known PFAS contamination, including in wells at National Guard facilities near Custer and in Rapid City and in the water supply for the city of Pierre, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

Dale Brewer, superintendent of the Pierre water department, said the city was flagged for chemical levels in its drinking water above 50 parts-per-trillion in 2014. But after re-testing the groundwater source, the test came back with a non-detectable chemical level, he said. The city switched to treated Missouri River water in late 2022.

While those three instances were below the EPA’s health advisory of 70 parts-per-trillion at the time of testing, none of them would pass under the EPA’s proposed standard of four parts-per-trillion.

Groundwater and soil near the Sioux Falls airport was contaminated at a combined rate of up to 255,100 parts-per-trillion in 2018, and groundwater and soil at Ellsworth Air Force Base were contaminated at a rate of up to 551,000 parts-per-trillion in 2016, according to analysis of military records by Northeastern University and the Environmental Working Group.

The new standard would allow for no more than 4 parts per trillion of the chemicals in drinking water, which is comparable to a few grains of salt in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

“From a health standpoint, what’s being learned is that the less, the better,” Gilbertson said. “There is effectively no level of these things that should be considered safe. We first thought a part per billion was safe, then 70 parts per trillion, and now we’re all the way down to 4 parts per trillion, which really says ‘we want none of this at all.’”

South Dakota starts first statewide testing effort

Kevin Christenson is tasked with testing 40 of South Dakota’s rural water systems for such contaminants.

He’s tested about 10 systems so far since January, but he won’t look at the results.

“I’m scared to find out what’s out there,” said Christenson, source water protection specialist with the South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems. “If you find anything, then you need to figure out the steps to remedy the problem, which a lot of people don’t have the answers for.”

The EPA is funding the project and analyzing test results that come in. A spokesman with EPA said the agency has not received validated sample results for the state yet, and that results will be publicly available later this year.

The multi-year initiative, funded on the federal level, involves testing nearly 50 systems across the state ranging from small to large systems, including some cities that will do their own testing. 

“It’s not going to be cheap if there are systems — or even one system — with PFAS,” Christenson said. “Maybe a town has that one water source but then the next one is miles down the road that they have to purchase and install a pipeline to get to it. Or they have to drill a new well and find a new water source that doesn’t have PFAS in it.”

There hadn’t been a systematic effort to test for these chemicals in the state before, though other states have been testing sites for years and establishing their own limits on levels of PFAS in drinking water. But that’s because South Dakota rarely goes “looking for problems,” Gilbertson said. 

“In the case of a contaminant of some kind that isn’t regulated yet or at all, there’s really not much incentive to go looking for it because nothing can be done,” Gilbertson said. “If there isn’t a standard then why test?”

Ellsworth begins construction, Sioux Falls awaits trial

Since contaminated water was found in Sioux Falls in 2013, the city regularly tests its drinking water for the chemicals. While it still has 21 wells out of commission, the city started purchasing water from the Lewis and Clark Regional Water system, a nonprofit, wholesale provider of treated water. Testing of water from the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System in 2019 showed PFAS contamination of 2.6 parts per trillion, which is below the proposed EPA standard.

Sioux Falls and its airport are two of thousands of plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against manufacturers of the toxic firefighting foam used across the country for decades.

Documents filed in the Sioux Falls case in 2019 in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina allege chemical-makers tested for and were aware of health risks of compounds used in a firefighting foam that for decades was tested and stored at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport and used by the National Guard and Sioux Falls firefighters. 

The first trial involving water supply contamination involves Stuart, Florida, and is scheduled to go before a jury in June. Sioux Falls and other plaintiffs will have to wait and see what happens in that first decision to see if the city will go to trial or reach a settlement agreement.

The city would not answer questions about PFAS testing and mitigation from South Dakota Searchlight because it “does not comment on pending litigation,” said Gregg Engler, senior assistant city attorney for Sioux Falls.

The U.S. Department of Defense is investigating, inspecting and cleaning sites in South Dakota for PFAS contamination. The Camp Rapid National Guard base in Rapid City is complete while cleanup efforts continue at Ellsworth and National Guard facilities at the Rapid City and Sioux Falls airports.

The Ellsworth Development Authority has been working on a proposed water system to get water from Rapid City to impacted residents near the Air Force base at Box Elder. Construction is expected to start this summer.

The EPA has set a 60-day period for public comment on the proposed PFAS regulations, after which it can finalize the standard. The EPA expects to finalize the regulation by the end of 2023.

We'll keep an eye out for PFAS-fighting projects in Minnesota.

The article from South Dakota Searchlight is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Related posts

•  PFAS industry written testimony on Minnesota House bill takes logos to a whole new level (2023)
• MNReformer opinion: If drinking water can go bad in Bemidji, it can be contaminated anywhere (2022)
• Bills banning use of PFAS approved by bipartisan MNHouse environment committee vote (2021)

Images Above--Firefighting foam, used at airports and military bases, has been identified as a source of toxic PFAS chemicals. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fire Administration). Below: Examples of how PFAS can enter into the environment and water. (Courtesy of the U.S. Government Accountability Office). Both via the South Dakota Searchlight.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Bill author not buying Gary Dahms' alternate reality about Upper Sioux Agency Park transfer

Bluestem's been covering the Minnesota House and Senate bills to transfer Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Yellow Medicine Oyate/Upper Agency Community, a federally recognized tribe, replacing the existing park with a new state park or recreational land in the same region. 

My last post on this issue, Video & news digest: Granite Falls informational hearing on transferring Upper Sioux Agency State Park to Yellow Medicine Community,  included this YouTube shot at an informational meeting in Granite Falls by a volunteer for a regional grassroots environmental and clean energy group, Clean Up The River Environment (CURE):

That video of the meeting has gained additional value following an exchange about the proposal, now part of the Senate omnibus environment and climate appropriations bill.

On Thursday night, senate bill sponsor Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, and Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, who hosted the Granite Falls meeting with the local state representative, engaged in a very interesting exchange about the land transfer language and the April 5 meeting in Granite Falls.

Here's video of their discussion from Minnesota State Media's Youtube of the Floor Session - Part 2 - 04/20/23(Bluestem used an online editor to make this excerpt):

We're fascinated by a couple of points about the Granite Falls informational meeting Dahms asserts in the clip.

After Kunesh points out that the majority of the audience members who spoke at the meeting supported the plan, Dahms states that 225-230 attended the meeting and that as most of the newspapers reported, they felt those in attendance were split evenly.

It's clear from the CURE Youtube that a majority of those speaking supported the legislation, and that's what Kunesh is talking about. Dahms 

What do the local media report? The Marshall Independent published two articles by Deb Gau about the meeting: Speakers frustrated over lack of information and Tribe: Park not recreational land. 

Looking just at the headlines, one might think the community was cleft between "speakers" and the tribe, but the YouTube of the hearing tells a different story.

As for the audience sentiments reported in the articles, there's this in Speakers frustrated over lack of information:

Members of the public at the meeting spoke out both in support of the land transfer, and questioning it. Some audience members also criticized what they said was a lack of communication about the land transfer proposal.

At the West Central Tribune, Linda Vanderwerf reports in Land transfer and closing of Upper Sioux Agency State Park draws a crowd, pleas for more communication:

A transfer of Upper Sioux Agency State Park land to the Upper Sioux Community won’t result in a loss of recreational opportunity in the area, state leaders said at an informational session Wednesday evening.

More than 200 people crowded into a room and the hall outside at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Granite Falls to hear state and tribal officials discuss the proposed transfer.

The session was hosted by Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, and Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent. They said they hoped the meeting could answer people's questions. . . .

Leaders of the Upper Sioux Community for years have asked to have the park land, which is sacred to them, returned to the community, several state officials said.

Until this year, the discussion didn’t move beyond that. Now, legislation moving through the Minnesota House and Senate could lead to the land transfer.  . . .

About 20 people asked questions or spoke during the meeting. Most of them said they were in favor of the land transfer. [emphasis added]

Those in favor spoke of reparations and trying to heal the wrongs of the past.

Several described the land as the site of a concentration camp where people starved and said it should be treated with more reverence.

Actually, that's not precisely what the speakers who brought up concentration camps were saying--rather the incidents were drawn from the “Dakota Death March” from "the Lower Sioux Agency (Morton, Redwood Falls area) to the concentration camp site at Fort. Snelling."

Historian and Yellow Medicine citizen Chris Mato Nunpa and others were alluding to that experience.

But we digress.

And 225-250 attendees? Gary Dahms himself shared a different audience attendance figure in an interview with J. P. Cola of Willmar Radio in Around 200 attend Upper Sioux State Park transfer meeting:

There was a good turnout at an information meeting in Granite Falls Tuesday regarding the proposed transfer of Upper Sioux Agency State Park back to the Upper Sioux Community of The Dakota. The meeting was hosted by Representative Chris Swedzinski of Ghent and Senator Gary Dahms of Redwood Falls. Dahms says about 200 people attended... [emphasis added]

In website post that includes the video embedded above, CURE reports in Upper Sioux Agency State Park land transfer meeting — Many gather to share and learn more: the attendence figure is more vague--but also more generous than traditional media crowd counts:

Minnesotans from around the region traveled to Granite Falls to learn more about the proposed land transfer of Upper Sioux Agency State Park back to the Dakota people

Area residents encouraged to be on the “right side” of history moving forward

On the evening of Wednesday, April 5, several hundred people gathered in Granite Falls at the Minnesota West Campus to hear from officials the details of the proposed land transfer of the Upper Sioux Agency State Park (USASP) back to the Dakota people of the Pezihutazizi Oyate (Upper Sioux Community).

MANY COMMUNITY MEMBERS GATHERED TO LEARN MORE AND VOICE THEIR OPINIONS ABOUT THE LAND TRANSFER OF THE UPPER SIOUX STATE PARK BACK TO THE UPPER SIOUX COMMUNITY.

Rep. Chris Swedzinski and Sen. Gary Dahms organized the Town Hall Meeting to bring officials to share information with interested parties from around the region. On the panel was Chairman Kevin Jensvold, Upper Sioux Community (USC), Ann Pierce and Scott Roemhildt from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), David Kelliher and Ben Leonard from the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), Dave Smiglewski, Granite Falls, Commissioner John Berends, Yellow Medicine County. Swedzinski and Dahms began the meeting with ground rules for behavior. They stated the purpose of the meeting was to bring information to the public.

The meeting began with the history of how the USASP land transfer started. Since the early 2000s, the Upper Sioux Community has requested to have the land returned due to the unusual circumstances and significance of this park for the Dakota people. For example, many in the Upper Sioux Community have ancestors buried on the USASP property and have had to pay to visit their relatives’ graves. The Upper Sioux Community brought this request to two previous Governors and now Governor Walz.

Over the past decade, USASP has suffered from various maintenance and funding issues. The park has gone from being open year-round to now only operating seasonally. The USASP interpretive center was condemned this past year due to ongoing disrepair. In 2019, the main road to the park, Minnesota state highway 67, was closed due to massive cracks, and the road was fully decommissioned in 2022 due to these fault line disruptions. The bridge over the Yellow Medicine River will be removed by 2026 due to ground movement. Collectively, these issues create a set of circumstances that significantly limit the public use of USASP, and significant decisions for its future were overdue.

A “LAND BACK” SIGN FROM AN UPPER SIOUX STATE PARK LAND TRANSFER SUPPORTER.

As part of any DNR land transfer, land of equal value must be acquired as part of a proposed transfer. In the USASP land transfer, a new $5.3 million park must be acquired and made available for public access and recreation. At the public meeting, there was extensive discussion about ensuring the new acquisition would be as close as possible to the current location, have as many of the current amenities that USASP offers, and more. Once built, the operational budget would replace that of USASP. Generally, it is not an added financial burden on the DNR Park and Trail’s current budget.

The Upper Sioux Community met with Rep. Swedzinski some 16 months ago and asked him, as their Minnesota House Representative, to carry the bill to the legislature that supported the land transfer. Rep. Swedzinski declined. The Upper Sioux Community reported that they were unsuccessful in connecting with Sen. Dahms at that time. Instead, they turned to other Minnesota lawmakers who were interested in supporting their request. In the Minnesota House, Reps. Stephenson, Keeler, Hortman, Kozlowski, Frazier, and others co-sponsored a bill, and Sen. Kunesh authored a bill in the Senate, both of which are included in omnibus bills. These bills support the transfer of the USASP land back to the Upper Sioux Community. They also charge the DNR and MHS with coming up with what needs to be considered and addressed in the proposed transfer. Over the next ten months, they are being asked to map out what that public engagement process might look like and report back to the legislature.

At the meeting, Ann Pierce from the DNR pointed out that there are partners at the local, county, state, tribal, and federal levels who would be involved in this process. Pierce explained that funding is available for the proposed land transfer process through the Land and Water Conservation Fund administered by the National Park Service. This grant program provides resources to state parks for land transfers and acquisitions under the Department of the Interior.

Chairman Jensvold shared that it is a priority for the Tribe to support and find replacement acres for the new park as close to the area as possible. A delegation from the Tribe traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with the National Park Service to ask for special consideration for an exception to the twelve-month timeline that the current acquisition program requires to provide extra time to secure land for the new park.

The USASP was established in 1963 on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people to preserve and interpret the remains of the old Agency site. Located on the Minnesota River near the confluence of the Yellow Medicine River, it has historically been a place where many Indigenous people have gathered medicines from the native plants that this ground holds. The park (1,280 acres) offers a unique mix of open prairie, bluffs, and wooded slopes. . . .

Finally, the most local of papers, the Granite Falls Advocate Tribune published Crowd gathers for information meeting about potential transfer of land, an article which included audio files of most of the meeting. Editor Jessica Stölen-Jacobson reports:

Last Wednesday evening, a meeting was held at Minnesota West Community & Technical College in Granite Falls hosted by State Representative Chris Swedzinski and Senator Gary Dahms. The two called the meeting with a panel mostly of people involved directly with the potential transfer of land from the state of Minnesota to the Upper Sioux Community. In addition, Dave Smiglewski of the Friends of Upper Sioux State Park and Yellow Medicine County Commissioner John Berends were invited to be and attended as members of the panel.

Other members on the panel – those involved with the potential transfer, were Scott Roemhildt and Ann Pierce from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), as well as Ben Leonard and David Kelliher from the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS). In the introductions, Dahms and Swedzinski informed the audience of the ground rules of the meeting, as well as saying that the purpose of the evening was to provide the public with information and allow for a venue for questions to be answered.

Upper Sioux Community Chairman Kevin Jensvold spoke first, saying, “I did ask Representative Swedzinski if it may be more appropriate if we make the initial comments based on the fact that it is through the efforts of the Upper Sioux Community (USC) that this legislation even has a possibility of being enacted.” He went on to explain that he has seen social media posts recently that local leadership had only in the last few weeks been informed of the intent of the Upper Sioux Community to request the land, but that in fact, it was known that the USC has been making this request for the last 18 years. “This request is nothing new,” he said . ..

. . . the microphone was turned over to those attending to ask questions of the panelists. A significant portion of the meeting was recorded, and is available for the public to hear by following the QR code at the end of the article.

No speculation on the sentiments of the general public attending the meeting. Apparently, the paper trusts its readers' ears.

We suspect that Dahms; lament and interrogation of Senate bill author Kunesh on the Senate floor was meant to set up an attempt to delete the land transfer language in the conference committee that's going to reconcile the House and Senate bills. Given that Representative Chris Swedzinski didn't raise an amendment or peep on the House floor about the language--and the weakness of the interpretation of the hearing and press reports Dahms shared with his colleagues--we hope the chairs stay steadfast with this effort for justice.

As for Dahms' dire warning that unnamed forces will be coming after more parks, we suggest he stroll through Ramsey Park, a lovely municipal park in his home town.

Related posts

• Video & news digest: Granite Falls informational hearing on transferring Upper Sioux Agency State Park to Yellow Medicine Community
• Area legislators to host April 5 community meeting in Granite Falls about transfer of park to Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate.
• Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer clears first MN House committee hearing
• Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer bill heard in two MN Senate committees, 

Photo: The packed meeting room for the informational hearing last Wednesday evening. Submitted photo.

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Session Daily: Omnibus ag bill passes with security for grain farmers, changes to BAH

I've been watching the Minnesota House's floor debates today. After passing two agriculture omnibus bills, the representatives are considering an omnibus education bill.

It's likely that the bills may change in conference committee.

From Session Daily:

Omnibus ag bill passes with security for grain farmers, changes to Board of Animal Health
By Margaret Stevens

Should it be signed into law, a provision that would offer grain farmers a way to get paid if their elevator goes belly up would ensure the impact of the omnibus agriculture finance bill lasts well beyond the next biennium.

A new grain indemnity fund is one provision included in HF2278/SF1955* that, as amended, was passed 70-58 along party lines by the House Thursday.

It now returns to the Senate, where the bill was initially passed 58-7 April 13.

The bill would authorize $448.4 million in agricultural spending, including $163.2 million in General Fund spending for the Department of Agriculture and $125.7 million for the Office of Broadband in the next biennium. There is $48 million in new money for farmers and an additional $100 million to expand broadband with a carve out for very low-population density areas.

[MORE: Download the spreadsheet]

“I’m proud to present a good, comprehensive, balanced budget that represents rural and urban farmers, big and small farmers, and for the environment and sustainability of agriculture,” said Rep. Samantha Vang (DFL-Brooklyn Center). She and Sen. Aric Putnam (DFL-St. Cloud) are the sponsors. “Whether it is protecting farmers, ensuring our soil remains healthy or providing food for every Minnesotan, we are making sure Minnesota remains a national leader.”

In addition to making comprehensive investments in food, land and farmers, Vang said it would also expand the capacity of the Agriculture Department to help farmers. Funding is included to hire a climate coordinator and an additional member to the department’s one-person international marketing team.

Rep. Kristi Pursell (DFL-Northfield) said the climate coordinator position would help bring federal dollars to the state, ensure farmers have a seat at the table during climate action plan conversations and help growers gain resiliency in the face of unpredictable weather events.

Vang said the bill’s legacy would be creation of a grain indemnity fund, an insurance policy for sellers if a grain elevator goes out of business. The bill would provide $5 million to establish the fund, which going forward would be built up through farmers’ participation premiums.

During committee hearings, farmers shared stories of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars following high-profile bankruptcies.

While many Republicans support that provision and others, such as soil health improvements and meat processing training grants, they take issue with spending priorities, possible changes to regulations on pesticide treated seeds and, especially, possible changes to the Board of Animal Health.

“In general, the bill is more about what it does to farmers than what it does for them,” Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck) said in a statement. “There is a net increase of $13.6 million in fees, along with a provision that takes away tools farmers use to grow crops.”

He’s concerned Minnesota could become an island with regards to pesticide-treated seed use.

A provision provoking strong Republican opposition would increase membership in the Board of Animal Health from six members to 11, have one member from each Congressional district, allow membership beyond veterinarians and livestock producers, and allow the governor to appoint board’s executive director.

Rep. John Burkel (R-Badger) said the provision would unnecessarily politicize a board which has the authority to order animal quarantines and depopulation.  

Unlike Anderson and Burkel, Bluestem supports these measures. Pesticide use threatens pollinators and mammals such as white-tailed deer, and the current composition of the board enables regulatory capture of the agency by the livestock industry. Stevens continues:

Omnibus policy

The House also passed an omnibus agriculture policy bill, as amended, 87-39. Also sponsored by Vang, HF1587, now heads to the Senate.

Provisions would streamline Department of Agriculture enforcement of regulations on dairy, genetically modified organisms and nursery stock, tighten requirements on pollinator friendly labels, and prohibit nondisclosure clauses in carbon capture contracts.  

Here's the Minnesota Information Services YouTube of the debate on SF1955, the omnibus agriculture finance bill:

Related post

• Minnesota considers grain indemnity fund to help farmers when buyers, elevators go belly up

Photo: Rep. Samantha Vang describes the omnibus agriculture finance bill on the House Floor April 20. (Photo by Catherine Davis).

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MinnPost: House DFL nixes Citizens’ Board, narrows environmental justice bill after intra-party split with Greater Minnesota lawmakers

Bluestem had posted a couple of articles in March about the possible restoration of a form of the Citizens Board to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency:  Bills to restore Citizens Board of the MPCA working their way through Minnesota legislature and Notes on one company that "fled Minnesota" because of onerous environmental regulations.

But in Monday's floor debate of the omnibus environment bill, that language was stricken in an amendment offered by the author of the bill, House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Chair Rick Hansen, South St. Paul--DFL.

This story was originally published by MinnPost, and I find it to be helpful for understanding the legislative process and the sort of compromises that are sometimes necessary to pass an ambitious agenda.

Later today, Bluestem will publish a digest of other news articles about the Minnesota House's passage of the environment, natural resources, clean energy and climate action omnibus bill.

DFL nixes Citizens’ Board, narrows environmental justice bill after intra-party split with Greater Minnesota lawmakers
By Walker Orenstein, MinnPost

Democrats who control the Minnesota House on Monday muscled through a historically large budget plan for environmental spending on a party-line vote. 

But first, DFL lawmakers had to strip one of their major priorities from that bill — reviving a Citizens’ Board to oversee pollution permits — and water down several measures, like an environmental justice policy meant to address the long-term impacts of contamination.

It was an unusually public last-minute change, and it drew discontent and disappointment from many Democrats. But a few of their colleagues from Greater Minnesota insisted on the changes amid criticism that the legislation would be a roadblock for economic development and critical industries like mining and agriculture.

“We had four Democrats from Greater Minnesota who refused to vote for the bill unless those changes were made,” said Rep. Rick Hansen, a South St. Paul DFLer who chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee.

The episode illustrated the limits on DFL ambitions for new environmental regulations. 

The party has full control of the Legislature and is overwhelmingly made up of urban and metro-area lawmakers who support tougher rules on pollution. But there are just enough Democrats in the House and Senate from rural areas to tamp down some of the party’s ideas that proved controversial among business interests and some DFL allies like the building trades.

In a few cases, Democrats have struck a compromise by applying regulations only to urban areas, including big regional centers in Greater Minnesota, but exempting most rural areas.

What Democratic leaders wanted to pass

Democrats have plenty of common ground on environment policy and spending, but one idea that split the party was the push to revive the Citizens’ Board that once handled permits for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

State lawmakers axed the board in 2015, ending a 48-year run for the panel and handing greater power to the commissioner of the agency. The board’s supporters said it was eliminated because the members voted to make a large dairy farm go through more extensive environmental review.

And with full DFL control of the Legislature, progressive environmental organizations wanted to reinstate a new version of the board. They argued it would lead to more independent oversight of the industry and a more transparent and trustworthy permitting process.

Republicans and large agriculture trade groups disagreed. Opponents said the board was simply a vehicle for environmentalists to unfairly stop projects, circumventing scientists and MPCA regulators.

The measure was included in Hansen’s omnibus bill, at least until the floor vote on Monday. Also in that large omnibus bill was the environmental justice policy aimed at limited cumulative impacts of pollution.

The initial bill proposed in the House by Rep. Fue Lee, DFL-Minneapolis, required the MPCA to consider the “aggregated levels of past and current air, water and land pollution,” when deciding whether to issue a permit in — or near — parts of the state defined as environmental justice areas.

That would include census tracts where 40% or more of the population is nonwhite, at least 35% of households have an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, or tracts where 40% or more of the population over the age of five have limited English proficiency. It also included all tribal reservations.

The bill would have applied to new air and water pollution permits. But it also would have applied to some businesses hoping to expand a facility and companies that needed to renew or amend a major air permit.

During a March committee hearing, Roxxanne O’Brien, co-founder of Community Members for Environmental Justice, an anti-pollution coalition based in north Minneapolis, said it’s not easy to object to polluting industries in areas already overburdened by “constant trauma.”

“It took us 10 years to fight what was happening at Northern Metals and to get that support,” she said, referencing a metal shredder that moved from north Minneapolis to Becker. “I’m here today to ask that you guys correct the historic racial wrongs that have been done historically in my community.”

But the legislation drew opposition from organizations that called for more targeted action to help areas hurt by pollution. Some said the bill was far too broad, unclear in its directives, and would hurt economic development.

Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, said “almost the entire population of the state” would be in or near an environmental justice area.

Craig Johnson, a lobbyist for the League of Minnesota Cities, said “virtually every permit would need to include this assessment.”

“Every community wastewater plant, every community with a stormwater permit, at least every five years would need to do a cumulative environmental assessment of any potentially affected environmental justice area just to get their permit renewed even if no changes were made,” Johnson said.

DFL rolls back its environmental ambitions

On the House floor Monday, lawmakers amended the environmental omnibus bill to delete the new Citizens’ Board. And they changed the cumulative impacts bill.

The altered proposal applies only to some air permits. And it would be limited to environmental justice areas in the seven-county metro area and the cities of Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, North Mankato, Rochester and St. Cloud. A separate odor management policy and an air toxics inventory was also restricted to the seven-county metro by the House DFL.

That could be an emerging political strategy from the DFL. At least two other major Democratic proposals limit their reach to the Twin Cities metro: a sales tax increase for the Met Council that would raise money for transit and local road projects and a sales tax in the seven-county metro to pay for affordable housing.

Hansen told MinnPost the four Democrats who forced the changes to the environmental bill were Reps. Dave Lislegard of Aurora, Gene Pelowski of Winona, Luke Frederick of Mankato, and Jeff Brand of St. Peter. The split, and resulting internal tension, was perhaps controversial enough that none of the four agreed to an interview to explain their views on the policies, declining through spokesman DJ Danielson.

In a written statement, Lislegard praised compromise and the “need to listen to one another’s perspectives.”

“In our DFL party we have a big tent and folks have a variety of different views on issues, and to get to a place where we can pass a bill, we need broad consensus,” he said. “I’m glad we’re able to talk through things and work together to get this important work done.”

Peterson, from the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, came to the defense of the lawmakers, saying people in Greater Minnesota expect their lawmakers to be “independent thinkers.”

“Whether Democrats or Republicans they don’t expect their representatives to be 100% in lockstep with what others in their party might want,” Peterson said in a written statement. “If it takes a handful of legislators stepping up and tapping the breaks on some of these really impactful bills, to make sure they don’t overreach and that the details get done right, that’s a good thing.”

Republicans praised the alterations during the House floor debate. “The MPCA Citizens’ Board created a lot of problems in years past for businesses, mining operations,” said Rep. Josh Heintzeman, a Republican from Nisswa.

Lislegard had expressed concerns about the Citizens’ Board bill during a March hearing. Legislators in northern Minnesota harbored worries about a board’s handling of the mining industry.

Lislegard said a board could overturn the recommendations of staff regulators who scrutinize the project in the environmental permitting process. “What company in any way, shape or form is going to spend the time, money and resources to go through a process to prove that they can meet or exceed both state and federal standards and then on top of that, after you’ve passed all tests, a Citizens’ Board comes in and denies it?” Lislegard said at the time.

Over in the state Senate, DFL lawmakers did not include the Citizens’ Board measure in their environmental omnibus bill, meaning the policy will not become law this year.

And Democrats in an earlier Senate committee hearing made their own changes to narrow the scope of the cumulative impacts bill, including to exempt a vast swath of northeastern Minnesota known as the Taconite Assistance Area at the request of Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown. Hauschild amended the bill with the help of Republicans over the objection of the committee chairman Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul. That version of the bill is also limited mainly to the seven-county metro.

Even a more limited bill has drawn consternation from the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council, which is often friendly to DFL proposals.

Democrats do agree on most environmental policy and are likely to approve both historic spending and legislation controversial among Republicans like sweeping new regulations on deer farmers meant to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease. 

But there’s also plenty of disagreements. Lots of ideas supported by many DFL lawmakers and environmental nonprofits never make it anywhere close to becoming law because of the more rural Democrats. For example, the House and Senate never entertained bills meant to block copper-nickel mining projects because DFLers in northeastern Minnesota support the prospective industry and retain critical seats in swing districts for the party.

But the defeat of legislation supported by the progressive wing of the party was notable for its public nature and because House Democrats have a slightly larger majority than Senate DFLers, usually allowing them to advance a more liberal agenda. Hansen said controversial ideas are typically nixed “in the darkness” of conference committees that meet privately to hash out differences between the House and Senate.

Hansen said the Greater Minnesota lawmakers were voting their districts, but he also blamed lobbyists and interest groups killing or narrowing the provisions he supported.

“We’ve got to be able to move forward and not be paralyzed by fear,” Hansen said. “I don’t like it, still have a half a loaf and keep pushing on it.”

MinnPost staff writer Peter Callaghan contributed to this report.

This article is republished here with permission under a Creative Commons license. To support MinnPost's work, make a donation here.

Related posts

•  Bills to restore Citizens Board of the MPCA working their way through Minnesota legislature 
• Notes on one company that "fled Minnesota" because of onerous environmental regulations
•  Bill to restore MPCA Citizens Board gets 2nd House hearing 3/7; commissioner Bishop neutral
•  Guy who works for dairy at heart of elimination of MPCA Citizen Board appointed to new fake board
•  MN Senate Environment & Energy Committee to hold hearing on purpose of environmental review
•  Fehr factor vs citizen power: so a real discussion happened in a Minnesota House committee 
• Co-founder of Senate Rural Task Force (est. 2014) attacks MPCA Citizen Board (est. 1967
• MN12A: Does Backer want to strip citizens of ability to ask MPCA for environmental studies? 

Photo: Rep. Rick Hansen introduces HF2310, the omnibus environment, natural resources, climate and energy finance bill on the House Floor April 17. (Photo by Catherine Davis/Session Daily, Reaching clean energy goals an aim of omnibus environment bill that also includes fishing license, other fee hikes by Margaret Stevens).

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Minnesota considers grain indemnity fund to help farmers when buyers, elevators go belly up

I been following the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee. Here's a good article that puts the proposed grain indemnity fund in a regional context. 

From Iowa Capital Dispatch, via the Minnesota Reformer.

Minnesota considers fund to help farmers when grain buyers, storage companies go bankrupt
By Jared Strong

Minnesota is currently contemplating the establishment of a fund to provide payments to farmers when the companies that buy or store their grain go bankrupt. Minnesota would seed the money — at least in part — with state money. The fund would operate between $9 million and $15 million and in later years would be subsidized by a 0.2% fee on grain sales if necessary.

“We’ve heard from farmers and our grain advisory group that an indemnity fund is a necessity,” said Allen Sommerfeld, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. “It’s the best way to provide farmers a legitimate safety net when these failures happen, and the unfortunate reality is that we know they will happen in the future.”

That’s the approach in Iowa, where the Grain Indemnity Fund has provided payouts to farmers since the 1980s if grain dealers or warehouses have failed to make good on their agreements with farmers. The fund pays 90% of their losses up to $300,000.

Midwestern states have tackled the issue of grain buyer and warehouse bankruptcies by establishing a fund, or by requiring companies to have insurance in the form of bonds to compensate farmers for their losses.

Minnesota has until now relied on bonding requirements for grain dealers and warehouses, which have fallen well short of making farmers whole when bankruptcies happen. In the past eight years, payouts from those bonds have covered between 8% and 17% of losses for farmers in regard to failed grain buyers, Sommerfeld said.

“The bond disbursement process is also very lengthy due to the amount of litigation that surrounds many grain facility closures, and claimants have waited years to receive payouts,” he said. “That’s unacceptable when a family’s livelihood is at stake. We can’t have more stories about family farms being wiped out like we’ve had over the last ten years or so.”

Several other states have indemnity funds to cover grain losses, including Illinois, Indiana and North Dakota. Illinois’ fund covers up to $1 million of loss per farmer and went broke in 2001, when it paid out about $32 million. That required a $4 million loan from the state to cover its payouts. It is funded through grain company licenses, grain storage capacity assessments, recoveries from licensee failures and interest, said Krista Lisser, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Indiana’s fund keeps between $20 million and $25 million and is funded with a 0.2% tax on sales to licensed grain buyers. That fee was collected between 1996 and 1998 and between 2015 and 2017. Farmers can opt out of the program and get their money back.

South Dakota has no similar fund but has increased oversight of its grain buyers. The state requires those buyers to submit quarterly financial statements.

“An indemnity fund is one tool to pay farmers, with costs borne on the front end when people pay into the fund,” said Leah Mohr, deputy executive director of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. “South Dakota has chosen to utilize other tools to protect our producers, with some of those tools unique to this state. We have seen success here.”

This article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: from MN Reformer.

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Fatal train crash highlights lack of railroad crossing protections in South Dakota

Bluestem has been fairly vocal about its concern for railroad safety.

In the article below, South Dakota News Watch's Bart Pfankuch investigates one factor in South Dakota train wrecks.

Fatal train crash highlights lack of railroad crossing protections in South Dakota
By Bart Pfankuch

HARRISBURG, S.D. – Jodi Kuipers learned the hard way how much time, work and determination it takes to get safety improvements made at a railroad crossing in South Dakota, even at the site of a tragedy that took the lives of two of her closest family members.

Driven first by sorrow and then by anger, Kuipers went on a mission to have lights and safety gates installed at a railroad crossing south of Harrisburg. Her twin sister and niece were killed there on Dec. 7, 2022, when an oncoming train struck the pickup they were riding in.

Roughly two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 railroad crossings in South Dakota are marked only by signposts with “railroad crossing” crossbucks. That’s the case on the gravel road where the accident occurred, a popular shortcut to avoid urban traffic in the fast-growing area of southern Sioux Falls. 

The crash killed front-seat passenger Jennifer Torgerson, 45, and her 12-year-old daughter, Kaylee Torgerson. Phil Torgerson, the driver of the truck who was Jennifer’s husband and Kaylee’s father, suffered serious injuries but survived. It happened less than a mile from their home.

‘Small-town girl wasn’t going to shut her mouth’

In the days and weeks after the accident, Kuipers, 45, contacted numerous local, state and federal officials as well as representatives of BNSF, the railroad company whose train struck the Torgersons. 

Through countless calls and emails, Kuipers kept a detailed spreadsheet with a timeline of her requests and responses received. Kuipers said she was initially met with bad news — that money wasn’t available for improvements and that any safety changes could take years.

But earlier this year, Kuipers was told by state officials that an expedited safety review had been done and funding had been appropriated to add signal lights and safety gates at the intersection in late 2023 or early 2024. A circular yellow sign with blinking lights has been erected at the crossing as a temporary warning.

With improvements promised, Kuipers credits her successful campaign to her own diligence, the support of family, friends, community members and local media, as well as interest taken by Lincoln County Commissioner Joel Arends and eventually Brace Prouty with the state Department of Transportation.

“It was pretty difficult to get anyone to talk to me at first,” Kuipers told News Watch. “But when I started these conversations, I made it known that I was not backing down. … I was going to call everyone, and they knew that this small-town girl wasn’t going to shut her mouth.”

1 in 10 South Dakota railroad crossings has no safety markers

Railroad safety concerns have taken on new significance in recent months as the U.S. has dealt with a number of major train derailments, including some with the release of dangerous chemicals. 

Recent reporting by South Dakota News Watch has also revealed a high level of secrecy maintained by railroad companies, which are not required to inform the public about what hazardous materials are being carried on rail cars, at what levels and in which locations. 

In South Dakota, trains carry 11 billion pounds of chemicals annually. But neither the public nor state officials are aware of what materials are being shipped on railroad tracks that along some stretches are more than a century old.

As for railroad crossings in South Dakota and other Great Plains states, rail lines and state governments provide relatively few active safety mechanisms. 

Data from the Federal Railroad Administration show that of the 1,869 total crossings in South Dakota, two-thirds (66%) are marked only by crossbuck signs. Roughly 1 in 10 crossings has no safety marker or signal. Of the remainder, 214 (11%) have flashing lights, 134 (7%) have safety gates and 112 (6%) have stop signs. In many cases, railroad crossings on gravel roads are marked only by static crossbuck signs on roads where speed limits are 55 mph.

It’s not only rural areas that lack active safety measures. Of the 90 crossings in and around Sioux Falls, 43 are marked only by crossbuck signs, and in the Rapid City area, eight of the 37 crossings are marked only by crossbucks, according to the FRA. 

8 killed and 38 injured in past decade at SD railroad crossings

On March 30, 2023, South Dakota was one of 12 states to receive part of a $231,000 investment in railroad safety public information campaigns by Operation Lifesaver, a non-profit group that works to prevent railroad crossing accidents. 

The money allocated to programming in South Dakota and North Dakota will be used to develop social media content and educational events aimed at helping farmers and drivers of cars, buses and trucks be safer at railroad crossings, said Kevin Brown, Operation Lifesaver coordinator for the Dakotas.

Federal data show that South Dakota had 121 train-versus-vehicle accidents from 2012-2022, including eight fatalities and 38 injuries. Nationally, 273 people were killed and another 769 injured in the 2,178 train-vehicle accidents in 2022, FRA data show. 

Rail industry officials point out that railroad crossing collisions fell by 39% between 2000 and 2020, and that ultimately drivers are mainly responsible for avoiding accidents.

“Because trains often require more than a mile to stop and they cannot deviate from their course, safety at grade crossings is primarily the motorist’s responsibility,” Lena Kent, BNSF director of public affairs, wrote to News Watch in an email. “The warning devices are there to alert motorists, not trains.”

Kent wrote that the majority of rail-related accidents are preventable and “are due to human error such as driving around gates and illegally using tracks as a shortcut.” She said that states, not railroad companies, are responsible for diagnosing risks and determining safety needs at individual railroad crossings.

Public pressure is often the only way to get action

Prouty, the South Dakota DOT safety engineer, told News Watch in an email that the state annually evaluates railroad crossings to prioritize spending on safety improvements. But it doesn’t allocate state money for improvements. Instead, the state enters into agreements with the road authority and private railroads to pay for improvements, which are also supported with federal funds. 

 

Prouty said diagnostic inspections include an on-site meeting in which all stakeholders look at train and vehicle traffic volumes, speeds and other safety factors.

State government and railroad companies have been reluctant to spend the money needed to improve safety at railroad crossings for generations, according to Robert Kolbe, who served on the Minnehaha County Commission from 1989-2009.

“You almost have an act of Congress to put something new in,” he said.

Kolbe recalled that during his commission tenure, the county was pushing the state and a railroad company to improve safety measures at a crossing near Crooks, just northeast of Sioux Falls, where there had been a pattern of accidents. Eventually, the state and company agreed but only after extensive pressure from the county, the public and other government agencies, he said.

“You have to embarrass the heck out of them locally, because you can’t make them do something if they have decided not to,” Kolbe said. “It takes a lot of pushing and nudging and they’ll only comply if there’s something that makes them look bad.”

675 pedestrians in U.S. killed by trains in 2022 

A look at data surrounding how trains operate should serve to warn drivers to be cautious at railroad crossings, said Tammy Wagner, a railroad safety specialist with the Federal Railroad Administration.

A freight train weighing up to 6,000 tons and traveling 55 mph can take more than a mile to stop, and the weight ratio of a car to a train is equivalent to a soda can and a car, she said.

“We all know what happens to a soda can hit by a car,” Wagner wrote to News Watch in an email.

U.S. railroad companies reported that 675 people were killed while trespassing on train tracks in the U.S. in 2022, Wagner said.

That’s largely because modern trains are far quieter than in the past, and trains are typically approaching faster than what’s apparent to the naked eye, she said.

Wagner also noted that walking on train tracks is illegal and that pedestrians should know that train cars can extend three feet beyond the rail lines on either side when in motion. 

Harrisburg railroad crossing was concealed 

Kuipers said in an interview and in emails sent to officials that the railroad crossing near Harrisburg where her sister and niece were killed was known to be hazardous and had a terrible line of sight for drivers. 

“The line of vision there is skewed from both ways, and at some angles, you can’t see anything,” she said.

A News Watch reporter visited the site and found that while heading eastbound on 274th Street, a homestead and line of trees block much of the vision of the train tracks and crossing on the north. 

Meanwhile, a westbound motorist — like Phil Torgerson on the fatal day — also faces a sight line of the tracks to the south that is obscured by a line of trees. On the north side of the crossing, a motorist could have difficulty seeing or hearing a train due to a berm rising along the tracks and a curve in the rail line just before the crossing where the speed limit is 35 mph.

According to the South Dakota Highway Patrol accident report, the Torgerson accident occurred at 4:43 p.m., a time when the December sun would have been low on the horizon and potentially right in his eyes. All occupants of the pickup were wearing seat belts, and neither alcohol nor drugs was a factor in the crash, the report said.

Didn’t see the train before impact

During her quest for safety, Kuipers said she was amazed by the support she and the Torgerson family received from community members and government officials who took up her cause. 

She was disappointed, however, because emotional messages to Gov. Kristi Noem and members of the congressional delegation didn’t elicit a response outside of a brief email sent by a staff member for U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds.

“I’ve been in South Dakota for 45 years, and you would think that when you send something like that, and for such a tragic way for them to pass away, you’d think you would get a little more correspondence,” she said. “It’s kind of heartbreaking as a citizen of South Dakota.”

Kuipers, who lives in Platte, said she spoke to her brother-in-law recently and he remains in deep mourning over the loss of his wife and daughter but is slowly recovering. Kuipers said he told her he did not see the oncoming train until the last moment before impact.

Kuipers is suffering her own individual sense of loss, and she choked up during an interview while describing how she and her sister were very close and how her niece was a happy child who was active in competitive cheer.

Losing a twin has made the loss hit harder, Kuipers said. But it has also added to her resolve to prevent future accidents at that railroad crossing and possibly others across the state.

“It’s not just another sibling. It was the person I shared my room with and my birthdays with,” she said. “They were both really great people, but we don’t get a choice in this because it’s all in God’s hands. But if it means at the end of the day I have to fight so no other family has to go through this, then it’s all worth it.”

The South Dakota News Watch article is republished with permission.

Related posts

• ProPublica: The true dangers of long trains
• State & public kept in the dark about 11B pounds of chemicals carried by rail in SD each year
• Ethanol on the tracks: more on the DM& E derailment
• Oops! DM & E train derailment closes Minnesota Highway 68 

Photo: A mother and daughter died in this December 2022 train/truck accident south of Harrisburg, sending a close relative on a quest to improve railroad crossing safety there and across the state. (Photo: Courtesy Dakota News Now/South Dakota News Watch).

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Legal adult cannabis bill heads to House Floor

It's unlikely to be scheduled for an April 20 vote, but Session Daily's Tim Walker reports that the bill that would legalize adult cannabis in Minnesota is headed for a floor vote. 

Legalized recreational cannabis bill heads to House Floor
By Tim Walker

It’s far from a done deal, but recreational cannabis took an important step forward Monday to becoming legal in Minnesota.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved HF100, as amended, on a split-voice vote and sent it to the House Floor.

Rep. Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids), who sponsors the bill, said the decades-long prohibition and criminalization of cannabis has not worked to make society safer and has had a devastating effect on minorities.

The bill would appropriate $73.38 million in the 2024-25 biennium to establish statewide and local structures to regulate and manage cannabis sales, fund prevention and addiction recovery programs, and provide grants to law enforcement and courts.

Stephenson said that because revenue from licensing fees and a cannabis sales tax of 8% on top of existing sales taxes would begin to come into the state’s coffers in 2026, no money would be appropriated beginning in fiscal year 2026.

“Over the long run, the bill is more than self-supporting,” he said.

An amendment to the bill would add several new appropriations, including $9 million in fiscal year 2025 to the Department of Health to fund grants for local health departments to develop educational materials on cannabis, including lower-potency hemp edibles, and outreach programs on prevention and safe use of recreational cannabis.

[MORE: View the fiscal impact; full 147-page fiscal note]

Another appropriation in the amendment would appropriate $15 million in the 2024-25 biennium, up from the $1 million in the bill’s previous version, to the Minnesota State Patrol for “drug recognition evaluator training.”

Stephenson said this extra funding is a recognition that unlike alcohol, there is no accurate roadside blood-level test to detect driving under the influence of cannabis, and peace officers will need training to accurately assess cannabis-impaired drivers.

Another $2.74 million in the 2024-25 biennium would fund a “statewide impaired driving coordinator” and support a pilot project to evaluate the efficacy of “oral fluid roadside testing.”

Republicans continue to express reservations about the bill, including the limited ability of local governments to tailor regulations and licensing fees to offset local costs they say would come with legalization, especially in local law enforcement and public health.

If local governments can’t raise revenue to address the social issues that will come with legalization, they will take a financial hit, said Rep. Peggy Scott (R-Andover). “All the state agencies in the bill … are well-funded, but the locals are left holding the bag.”

Rep. John Petersburg (R-Waseca) questioned whether there is any benefit to society for legalizing recreational cannabis. He said friends and relatives in other states with legal cannabis have witnessed many social- and health-related downsides.

“I think it’s just dangerous at this time,” he said.

What’s in the bill?

Introduced in January, the bill was reviewed and approved by 14 committees before coming to the House Ways and Means Committee. In its current version, it would permit a person age 21 or older to:

• possess up to 2 ounces of cannabis flower in a public place or 1.5 pounds in a person’s residence;
• possess or transport no more than 8 grams of adult-use cannabis concentrate;
• possess or transport edible products infused with up to 800 milligrams of THC;
• give away cannabis flower and cannabinoid products in an amount that is legal for a person to possess in public;
• use cannabis flower and cannabinoid products in private areas; and
• cultivate up to eight cannabis plants, of which four or fewer may be mature, flowering plants.

The bill would make significant changes in many parts of Minnesota law by:

• creating more than a dozen types of licenses for growing, selling, transporting and testing cannabis;
• creating an Office of Cannabis Management to regulate cannabis and take enforcement actions;
• taxing cannabis retail sales at 8%, in addition to any already imposed local or state taxes;
• creating and funding programs to combat cannabis abuse;
• creating grants to assist individuals entering the legal cannabis market;
• eliminating criminal penalties for cannabis possession; and
• expunging the criminal records of people previously convicted of low-level cannabis offenses.

Related post

•  While will of the people stifled in South Dakota, MN absentmindedly legalized THC edibles

Photo: Cannabis products.

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Ortonville videographer & Indigenous mother create documentary on search for daughter

A week ago at a meeting in Ortonville, my partner and I met Karina Kafka, a young videographer who's heading off to Atlanta for the next step of her promising career. Mike was especially taken with her professionalism and the topic of her work, Murders and Missing Indigenous Women, for like many Native American families, he's lost a cousin and an aunt to the MMIW crisis.

Kafka's already making the news in rural Minnesota.

In Saturday's West Central Tribune, Tom Cherveny reports in Ortonville, Minnesota, videographer, mother of woman who disappeared fight for missing Indigenous women:

Monica Fast Horse feared the worst when the daughter on whom she relied for rides to dialysis and other care failed to show up at her home one August day in 2021.

She hesitated before reporting her missing to the police, but knew immediately something bad had happened. Her missing daughter was always dependable in caring for her. And, Fast Horse explained, she was caring for her missing daughter's 5-year-old daughter.

“My first mistake was waiting too long the first day,” Fast Horse, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, told videographer Karina Kafka as a camera recorded.

“A Mother’s Love,” a video documentary created by Kafka, aims to raise awareness about the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The documentary is told from the mother’s perspective.

Fast Horse speaks directly to the challenges that followed once she reached out to law enforcement and the media in hopes of finding help in locating her missing daughter.

. . .Kafka, who grew up in Ortonville, is a 2021 graduate of Augsburg University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and cinematography. Of Asian descent, Kafka said the widespread media attention about the disappearance of Gabby Petito, a white woman murdered at age 22 in August 2021 by her fiancé, got her thinking.

 

“If I was missing, would my face be on the news, in the papers? Probably not,” she told an audience who gathered with her and Fast Horse for a screening of her video documentary at the YES! House in Granite Falls on March 15.

Kafka said that observation led her to become passionate about the need to raise awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. She sought out someone whose story could be told.

She learned in an article in The Guardian about the ordeal experienced by Fast Horse and got in contact. Since producing the documentary, Kafka and Fast Horse have joined to offer screenings to other communities, such as Madison.

Kafka produced the documentary with a budget of zero. She was the entire production crew. . . .

Fast Horse's fears were eased when one of her daughters, who has a degree in information technology, was able to get into the missing daughter’s Facebook account and track her whereabouts. She now knew her daughter was alive, Fast Horse said.

After roughly 18 weeks, Fast Horse said her daughter returned with a knock on the door. She came home thin, with dark circles under her eyes, and not wearing the clothes she had been wearing when she disappeared, according to Fast Horse.

A person she thought was a friend had given her a ride the day she disappeared, Fast Horse said her daughter eventually told her. She had been taken away and often kept locked in a closet, fed a diet of mostly peanut butter despite her allergy to peanuts, and was beaten, said Fast Horse.

“They broke her,” said Fast Horse.

To this day, her daughter will tell her very little about what happened.

One thing was clear: The persistent campaign by Fast Horse to find her missing daughter mattered.

Read the entire article at the Tribune. Want to watch the documentary? Cherveny reports:

The documentary can be viewed by contacting Kafka on her Facebook page.

Related posts

•  Via Star Tribune op-ed page: update on Minnesota's MMIR (MMIW) Office
• South Dakota AG Ravnsborg unable to fund office for missing Indigenous persons 
• Not just a "bargaining chip" for Paul Gazelka, MMIR office finds place in public safety deal 
• House Judiciary Finance & Civil Law Committee sends bill for MMIR office to Public Safety
• [VIDEO] Shakopee Town Hall discussion about state rep. Keeler's effort to establish MMIR office
• National MMIW+R awareness day: scenes from Sisseton, South Dakota; St. Paul, Minnesota

Photo: Karina Kafka, left, and Monica Fast Horse hosted a screening of the documentary "A Mother's Love," followed by a discussion to raise awareness about the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women at the YES! House in Granite Falls on March 15, 2023.  Contributed to West Central Tribune by YES! House.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

 

Amid presidential speculation, Governor Noem signs order, gets standing ovation at NRA event

From South Dakota Searchlight:

Noem signs order, gets standing ovation amid presidential speculation at NRA event
By Makenzie Huber

Gov. Kristi Noem signed an executive order that she said will bolster gun rights as she spoke to a crowd Thursday at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum in Indianapolis, along with presidential candidates and potential candidates including former President Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Noem is viewed as a potential presidential candidate but has not committed to running. During her speech, she touted South Dakota’s economic growth and gun-friendliness since she stepped into office in 2018. Her executive order bars state agencies under her control from contracting with financial institutions that discriminate against firearm-related entities.

The appearance furthers the governor’s national brand and is a clear indication she has ambitions at the national level, said David Wiltse, political science professor at South Dakota State University.

In fact, she is “doing everything she needs to do” to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, he said.

“This is a national stage — deliberately a national stage,” Wiltse said. “That’s probably more or less an unequivocal good for the state and certainly good for her as she looks past her current office, as any ambitious politician would.”

New executive order mirrors Texas, Montana laws

Noem opened her speech with stories about how growing up hunting played a role in developing her confidence and problem-solving abilities. She further used the microphone to promote South Dakota, sharing her determination not to “lock down” during the COVID pandemic and touting the state’s positive record with gun owners.

In 2019, she signed a bill into law eliminating the need for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in the state. South Dakota also has a strengthened “Stand Your Ground” law and doesn’t charge a fee for concealed carry permits — even paying for individuals’ federal background checks when they buy a gun from a licensed dealer, she said.

“We are setting the standards as the most Second Amendment friendly state in the nation,” Noem said.

South Dakota is listed as the seventh best state for gun owners, according to Guns and Ammo, behind Wyoming, Montana, Indiana, Utah, Arizona and North Dakota.

After Noem signed her executive order on stage, she handed the pen to NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. Texas signed similar legislation into law in 2021, and a similar bill in Montana is awaiting the governor’s signature after passing through the Legislature earlier this month.

The executive order would require banks and other businesses seeking state contracts worth $100,000 or more to certify they don’t exclude firearm or ammunition industries and retailers.

“God gave you the right to defend yourself and your family. The government recognizes that right, but we don’t have to ask permission to defend it,” Noem said, after comparing the modern political situation to the Revolutionary War period.

Noem is making ‘all the right moves’ for presidential bid

Noem used some of her time at the podium to re-introduce herself to a national audience. She spoke about her success as governor and her rural roots, she told stories of her family and her grandchildren, and touched on national political topics.

Noem was met with a standing ovation as she walked off the stage to the country song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” by Toby Keith. Trump and Pence received a similar standing ovation, but Hutchinson did not.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron Desantis spoke to the convention via video message. Like Noem, he has not officially announced a run, but he’s a leader in some polls.

Noem and Desantis are favored among South Dakota Republicans, based on an SDSU poll by Wiltse and SDSU professor Filip Viskupič. The poll, which surveyed 747 registered voters about five presidential candidates or potential candidates, was released Thursday.

“You’re seeing her make all these moves that just have to be done. Things like the NRA convention, those are important when it comes to funding but also when signaling support and taking cues from opinion leaders,” Wiltse said. “She has a constant presence on conservative media too — that’s everything you need to do to run for president at this point.”

But, Wiltse said, those are also the things needed to do if she’s angling for vice president or a cabinet position.

“You can’t be sure of this other than we know she’s building her name and her brand for something bigger than governor, which is perfectly normal and logical and something any other politician worth their salt is going to be doing.”

The next step, Wiltse said, is heading to Iowa or South Carolina, which are early Republican primary states.

“That’s where you’re really waving a flag of running or wanting to be involved in shaping who runs,” Wiltse said.

Noem has been invited to the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s speaking event later this month, according to the Argus Leader. The event is for those who’ve expressed an interest in running for president, and other invitees include DeSantis, Hutchinson, Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Images: Top--South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks to guests at the 2023 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum on April 13, 2023, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The forum is part of the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meetings & Exhibits. (Scott Olson/Getty Images). Graphic: SDSU political science professors asked 747 South Dakota Republicans to rank how favorably they view Gov. Kristi Noem, former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Naley and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Noem had the most favorable ranking, followed closely by DeSantis. (Courtesy of SDSU).

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MN House passes Democracy for the People Act

A long day of errands, so I'll go with this story from Session Daily:

Bill proposing automatic voter registration, permanent absentee ballot lists gains House approval
By Mike Cook

A vast elections bill that supporters say focuses on Minnesota voices is not being well-received by all — but enough — of them.

Proponents say the so-called “Democracy for the People Act” would help strengthen voter participation, expand access, and continue sound elections administration.

“We’re going to be a North Star for states around the country, for people around the country who are asking in this moment, ‘What does American democracy look like?’,” Rep. Emma Greenman (DFL-Mpls), the sponsor of HF3, said at a morning press conference.

Passed, as amended, 70-57 by the House late Thursday, the bill now heads to the Senate.

Also at the press conference, House Majority Leader Jamie Long (DFL-Mpls) said everything in the bill is about expanding access. “Minnesotans value our democracy, they love to vote, they vote in some of the highest numbers in our country, but we can always be better. … This bill has so many commonsense, important provisions in it.”

Bill provisions include:

• automatic voter registration when getting a driver’s license or state identification card (channels would still be followed to ensure eligibility);
• pre-registration to vote for 16- and 17-year-olds;
• voters could join a permanent absentee voter list for automatic delivery of an absentee ballot;
• establishing standards and procedures for multi-lingual election resources, including translation services at a polling place;
• protecting voters from intimidation, harassment, and deceptive practices;
• updating disclosure laws so Minnesotans better understand who is trying to influence their vote; and
• restricting certain political activities by foreign-influenced corporations, such as making contributions to a candidate or their principal campaign; to a political committee, fund, or party unit; or to promote or defeat a ballot question.

“By enhancing access to voting, whether through ease of registration, language access, or protecting voters from intimidation, this bill makes it clear we want Minnesota to be a state where people vote,” said Rep. Esther Agbaje (DFL-Mpls).

But Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove) has capability concerns as more information is added. A 2018 Office of the Legislative Auditor report found plenty of problems in the current statewide voter registration system, and she said a 2019 report showed not much had been fixed. “Automatic voter system may be a good idea at some point, but it is not prudent to do this when the current system is not functioning well. We are opening ourselves up to a host of problems about ineligible voters voting or not being able to be verified.”

Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) expressed dismay that past practice has been for elections bills to be bipartisan — something Gov. Tim Walz endorsed in 2019 — and this one is far from that.

Countered Long: “Everything that is in here does not favor one party or the other. It’s about expanding access to vote, making it easier for people to participate, and the public does not view these as partisan.”

Funding elections

At a February hearing of the House Elections Finance and Policy Committee, Jeff Sigurdson, executive director of the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, said $53 million was spent in Minnesota for the 2022 election, a rather “explosive growth” over prior years. That does not include groups not registered with the board.

A problem, Greenman said, is spending from outside groups and other independent expenditures do not always need to be reported to the board, leading voters and candidates not knowing who’s funding, for example, a negative ad.

The bill would expand the statutory definition of “expressly advocating” to include types of political communication that do not use specific words or phrases that clearly express advocacy, such as “vote” or “vote against,” but “could only be interpreted by a reasonable person as containing advocacy of the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates.”

“This bill says if it is express advocacy, if it is a functional equivalent, which is no reasonable person could interpret it as anything else, those are required to report as an independent expenditure and report their express advocacy,” Greenman said.

Rep. Harry Niska (R-Ramsey) said the bill should be called the “Democrats Rule the People Act.”

He believes parts will be subject to a constitutional challenge, the express advocacy changes will “chill potential speech,” and language to prohibit companies with foreign ties from certain political activities would not apply to unions and nonprofit groups.

An amendment offered by Torkelson to limit when express advocacy would be enforced was unsuccessful, as was one to delete the “express advocacy” definition and replace it with “electioneering communications.”

Other amendments unsuccessfully offered by Republicans include: a person registering to vote on Election Day would cast a provisional ballot, and once verified as an eligible voter, the ballot would be counted; prohibiting someone convicted of a felony from pre-registering to vote; a ban on elections money from outside Minnesota; and ensuring most individual information in the statewide voter registration system is public information. Data that’d remain private include a voter’s date of birth, driver’s license or identification card number, passport number, and any part of a Social Security number.

Money, money, money

The bill contains $1.06 million of General Fund spending in 2024-25 for bill implementation, including $861,000 to the Office of the Secretary of State — largely a onetime expense related to programming costs for implementing automatic voter registration and updating online tools — and $200,000 to the Office of the Attorney General for enforcement of intimidation and interference with the voting process.

[MORE: View the consolidated fiscal note]

From the vehicle services operating account, a onetime $45,000 appropriation would go to the Public Safety Department for updated formats and language associated with paper application forms and online pre-applications because of automatic voter provisions.

Representatives of the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board previously said the proposed changes can be absorbed in their current funding.

Photo: Rep. Emma Greenman introduces HF3 on the House Floor April 13. (Photo by Catherine Davis/Session Daily).

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SD News Watch: Most South Dakota county auditors disagree with election drop box ban

More election administration news from South Dakota.

At South Dakota News Watch, Stu Whitney reports in Most South Dakota county auditors disagree with election drop box ban:

When the question of using election drop boxes for South Dakota early voting was raised in a House State Affairs committee hearing in Pierre in early February, the discussion took on an ominous tone, mirroring national rhetoric over the integrity of American elections.

“It’s simply too easy for bad actors to abuse these drop-off sites to dump unauthorized ballots illegally,” said Republican Rep. Kirk Chaffee of Whitewood. He was the prime sponsor of House Bill 1165, which modified absentee voting rules and banned the use of unmonitored drop boxes in South Dakota.

T.J. Nelson, a lobbyist for Opportunity Solutions Project, a conservative advocacy group that has pushed for restrictions to absentee voting in state legislatures, also issued warnings while working with legislators and county auditors to make it “easier to vote but harder to cheat,” a mantra used by supporters of early-voting reforms.

“Other states have a lot of issues with people just going out and pre-filling these absentee request forms, doing the work for the voter except signing their name, and then dumping ballots,” Nelson testified. “We need to make sure someone isn’t taking a hundred ballots and stuffing them into a ballot box.”

These arguments proved persuasive. 

HB 1165 passed both houses and Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed it on March 21, one of 10 election-related bills that House Majority Leader Will Mortenson said would “keep South Dakota the model for election integrity and voter access.”

But the premise used to outlaw the use of drop boxes – that they are vulnerable to fraud and used to rig electoral outcomes – is false, according to a South Dakota News Watch survey of every county auditor in the state. 

Furthermore, most auditors said they oppose the ban because it will make it harder, not easier, for voters to participate in the democratic process.

No fraud tied to drop boxes in past two elections

South Dakota did not record a single case of voter fraud or other election-related crimes tied to the use of ballot drop boxes in 2020 or 2022, according to the survey that drew responses from 58 of 66 counties, including 29 of the top 30 by population. 

Of the 58 respondents, 33 (57%) reported using drop boxes as receptacles for absentee ballots in 2020 or 2022 or both, a practice that became more common during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the boxes were connected to county buildings and were available to voters during non-business hours, which would not be allowed under the new law.

“I think we’re trying to correct a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Harding County Auditor Kathy Glines, who took office in 1991 and was part of a group of auditors who testified in Pierre. 

“The legislators we worked with were very open and receptive to input we had. But there was also outlying pressure to correct issues that we haven’t had problems with.” 

Pressure based on misinformation

That pressure has been felt by election officials across the country, spurred by former President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election despite no evidence of widespread electoral fraud as well as concerns raised by some Republicans about the broadening of absentee or early voting during the pandemic.

Drop boxes, used in nearly 40 states in 2020, became a target for election reformers after more than 40% of voters used the boxes to return ballots in that presidential election year, compared with about 15% in 2016, according to the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

A movie praised by Trump, “2000 Mules,” purported to show a pattern of Democrat-aligned ballot “mules” paid to illegally collect and drop off ballots in swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Election experts criticized the project’s flawed cellphone tracking analysis, while Trump’s efforts to establish ballot fraud through the court system proved unsuccessful due to lack of evidence.

“The thing that’s really troubling is that people are being played in this moment, which results in people donating millions and millions of dollars to lost causes that are based on lies and misinformation,” said Tammy Patrick, CEO of programs for the Election Center, a Texas-based nonprofit that trains and certifies election administrators throughout the country.

She points out that drop boxes were used without controversy in Western states such as Washington, Utah, Oregon and Arizona for decades before they became a partisan issue following the 2020 election. In South Dakota, where 50% of registered voters are Republican, GOP voters comprised 53% of the early vote in 2022 and 48% in 2020.

“What is particularly problematic is that many of these efforts are based on the fallacy that (early or absentee voting) is rampant with fraud, which it is not. And it’s also based on the fallacy that this will somehow benefit one party over another, which it will not,” Patrick said.

Top leaders critical of election drop boxes

An Associated Press survey of election officials in each state revealed no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft involving drop boxes that could have affected the results of the 2020 election. 

Absentee ballots are verified by signature and tracked closely, Patrick said, often with an option for voters to see where their ballot is at any given time, a process that safeguards against votes being illegally cast.

Still, the criticism of drop boxes continues in South Dakota, to the highest levels of state government. 

When Lincoln County Commissioner Joel Arends boasted on Twitter in April 2022 that the county would not use drop boxes that year and “it’s time to make sure we don’t have these in any other counties in South Dakota,” Noem tweeted “I agree!” from her personal account.

Secretary of State Monae Johnson, who has refused to publicly acknowledge that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, prevailed in last year’s GOP primary over incumbent Steve Barnett by accusing him of not being vigilant enough on election security. 

Johnson, who declined an interview request from News Watch, didn’t bring any bills during the 2023 session. But she has supported stricter voter ID laws and hand-counting of ballots in some cases while vowing to keep South Dakota one of just eight states that doesn’t offer online registration.

‘Democracy starts to die’

Patrick, who has testified before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on voting systems and security, has a South Dakota background. Her parents grew up northeast of Brookings in White and she’s concerned by what she sees in the Mount Rushmore State.

“As election officials, legislators and auditors, we should be looking at how we can better serve our voters and accommodating them in their modern way of life,” she said. 

“This (drop box ban) is going to negatively impact voters who live in remote areas, where they have to go all the way into the country seat rather than drop their ballot off in a location closer to them. We also know that some of these rural locations have challenges with postal delivery. This is going to affect farmers and ranchers and really anyone who works non-traditional hours because if it’s only internal to the building, that’s going to severely limit access.

“South Dakotans are the heart of this country,” she added. “They’re hard-working, generous people, they’re practical and they’re honest. So it pains me to see individuals being used so nefariously in this way, to push this narrative that the 2020 election was illegitimate. That is deeply problematic beyond the surface of what candidate won or lost because when voters and the general population start to question the legitimacy of their election systems, democracy starts to die.”

Minnehaha County stopped using drop boxes

The primary purpose of drop boxes is to allow absentee or early voters an opportunity to submit ballots at a time and place convenient to their schedule or circumstance. Some might use it to save postage, avoid a crowded indoor setting or merely because they’re concerned about meeting the mail-in deadline for ballots.

Lincoln County Auditor Sheri Lund, whose office used a ballot drop box on the front steps of the courthouse in 2020 but not 2022, points out the irony of banning drop boxes but allowing ballots to be deposited in mailboxes, many of which lack the security and surveillance of county-supervised drop boxes.

“One form of drop box is still able to be used, and you can find them on almost every corner,” Lund said. “They’re blue and are marked USPS.”

Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson, who was elected in November 2022 but didn’t begin her term until March 2023, noted that Minnehaha used two drop boxes for the 2020 election due to the pandemic but then adjusted when COVID-19 policies changed. In 2022, the state’s largest county used drop boxes only for city elections and not for the primary and general.

Anderson, who defeated incumbent Ben Kyte in the Republican primary by trumpeting election integrity as a campaign theme, has aligned herself with Secretary of State Johnson on positions such as calling for post-election audits and opposing online registration. 

Anderson was the only auditor in the News Watch survey who explicitly supported banning drop boxes in South Dakota, pointing out a state law (SDCL 12-3-5) that allows employees time away from work to vote.

“Many citizens and business owners do not realize this law exists,” Anderson wrote in an emailed response. “Also, our state has the longest period (45 days) for early voting and absentee voting as compared to other states. I personally believe that citizens have plenty of time and multiple ways to cast a ballot without the use of ballot drop boxes.”

Election drop boxes ‘convenient’ for voters

Other auditors were more likely to point to voter appreciation of the delivery method during the 2020 election and the effectiveness of drop boxes in getting ballots banked early.

Pennington County, the state’s second-largest, utilized a drop box in elections prior to 2020 in the foyer of the administration building in Rapid City. 

“The box is in a locked area and then the box itself is locked. And only the auditor’s office has a key to that box,” said Cindy Mohler, one of the auditors who met with lawmakers in Pierre. “In Pennington, (the new law) really did nothing more than remove a convenient way for voters to return their ballots during non-business hours or return their ballot without having to come all the way into the building.”

Hand County Auditor Doug DeBoer said his office in Miller used “a large metal box” as a drop box for the 2020 election “made by a local blacksmith and built to endure some abuse.” 

The slot was large enough for election envelopes, but his office mostly received applications for absentee ballots. Though DeBoer said he does not personally believe in drop boxes, he noted that his constituents support them. 

“I normally eat out or spend my noon hours visiting with people, and I routinely ask them their opinion on things. And all but one person thought the ballot drop box was a great idea,” he said. “Especially for those who can’t do stairs (our elevator is broken) and those who don’t want to come inside.”

In Leola, McPherson County Auditor Lindley Howard, a member of the state board of elections, said banning drop boxes “reduces voter choice and access.” Hughes County Auditor Thomas Oliva, based in Pierre, said of the new law: “I think it only made things harder for the voter. It was a nice convenience for the voter that is no longer an option.”

‘It starts with misinformation and wild accusations’ 

Groups seeking to modify or restrict absentee voting have found their footing in Republican-led states since the 2020 election, using Trump-fueled allegations from prominent election deniers such as MyPillow founder Mike Lindell to build support.

South Dakota was fertile ground for such efforts, with far-right Freedom Caucus legislators aligning with the citizen-led South Dakota Canvassing Group, partly inspired by Lindell’s Cyber Symposium in Sioux Falls in August 2021, which promised and failed to prove election fraud.

“There were cookie-cutter versions of election security bills being circulated across the country,” said Democratic Rep. Kameron Nelson of Sioux Falls. “It starts with misinformation and wild accusations of voter fraud. And then it sort of spirals down to whoever gloms onto it and runs with it through the legislative process. And it has significant consequences at the end of the day.”

Lindell was sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems, which claims it was harmed by unfounded statements from Lindell and other Trump allies that Dominion rigged its machines in favor of Biden in 2020. In allowing the lawsuit to proceed, a judge ruled that Dominion “has adequately alleged that Lindell made his claims knowing that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.”

Auditors under fire from Canvassing Group

The Freedom Caucus sent an August 2022 letter to Noem and then-Attorney General Mark Vargo urging them to preserve 2020 election records by directing our “county Auditors to uphold the rights of our citizens to oversee and review the election process to further strengthen our elections, and to honor our commitment to our citizens for government transparency.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, a Watertown Republican, dismissed leaders of the canvassing group as having “an obsession or fetish” that amounted to harassment of election officials. 

Schoenbeck helped defeat bills brought by Freedom Caucus member Republican Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller of Rapid City. The measures would have required more vigorous investigation of voter addresses and identities by auditors, who were already besieged with Freedom of Information Act requests related to 2020 election data in South Dakota, where Trump won with 62% of the vote.

“Those requests are bogging down these small election offices, a third of which don’t have a full-time employee,” said Patrick, who served 11 years as federal compliance officer for the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix. 

“Now they’re spending hundreds of hours fulfilling these records requests for every email they’ve ever sent or ballot images that they don’t necessarily retain or voter signatures that aren’t allowed by law to be released to the public. I’ve had election officials tell me, ‘I do FOIA requests from 9 to 5 and then I do my election work at night.’ That’s untenable. Election officials are exhausted.”

Auditors were key players in election law changes

Mortenson, a Pierre Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Casey Crabtree, a Republican from Madison, emphasized their work with county auditors in building support for successful 2023 bills that addressed voter-roll updates, residency requirements, post-election audits and the testing of tabulation equipment.

More radical efforts such as Frye-Mueller’s measures and HB 1217, a proposal from Republican Rep. Scott Odenbach of Spearfish to shorten the early voting period from 45 days to 30, drew strong rebukes from election officials and ran out of steam.

“The bills that were vetted by the auditors are pretty much the ones that passed,” said Lincoln County’s Lund.

HB 1165, described by GOP leadership as a “comprehensive clean-up bill” for absentee voting, included 22 sections after amendments were tacked on, the second-to-last of which made South Dakota the 11th state in the country to ban ballot drop boxes, while five other states have restrictions.

Several auditors described the process as a negotiation with Republican legislators and Nelson, the lobbyist for Opportunity Solutions Project. That same group worked to get drop box restrictions passed in Iowa in 2021 and an outright ban approved in Missouri last year. Nelson declined an interview request from News Watch, deferring to auditors and lawmakers involved in the legislation.

“There was a little give and take on both sides,” said Mohler, the auditor for Pennington County. “People are very interested in election integrity. We knew there would be some things that would come out of the legislative session and hopefully we could influence a little bit of what was happening.”

‘Hope that it’s going to get better’

Though some auditors reached by News Watch thought the law would still allow drop boxes if they are placed within the county office, Section 21 states that an election official “may not establish or place, or allow any individual to establish or place, an absentee ballot drop box within the official’s jurisdiction.” 

It goes on to exclude from the ban receptacles used to “physically secure a completed absentee ballot, including a secured and monitored receptacle at the office of the individual in charge of the election,” which could be interpreted as secure storage of ballots rather than a place for voters to submit them.

The law states that the state board of elections, chaired by the secretary of state, will make rules “prescribing the requirements to ensure the security of the receptacle or the container located at the office of the individual in charge of the election.”

County auditors are making plans to adjust to the new laws, expressing appreciation for being part of the legislative process but wary of continued attacks on the integrity of South Dakota’s voting systems as another major election looms in 2024.

“It’s really disappointing to see how many people thought we weren’t following the law or doing the best that we could to make sure that our elections were safe and secure,” said Mohler. “I have hope that it’s going to get better, but we’re headed into a presidential election year, so I don’t know if that’s the case.”

This article is republished online with the permission of South Dakota News Watch.

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Photo: A drop box is shown outside the Minnehaha County courthouse during the 2020 election. Photo: KELOLAND Media Group.

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Video & news digest: Granite Falls informational hearing on transferring Upper Sioux Agency State Park to Yellow Medicine Community

Since Roberts County was locked down last Wednesday by what we all hope was the winter's last blizzard, Bluestem wasn't able to attend the meeting in Granite Falls we posted about in Area legislators to host April 5 community meeting in Granite Falls about transfer of park to Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate.

Bluestem had covered the legislation that would enable the transfer in two posts: Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer clears first MN House committee hearing and Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer bill heard in two MN Senate committees, 

Fortunately, we were able to listen to audio of the meeting--though the available audio was online in several pieces and in an audio file sent to me by someone who was able to attend. The beginning of the meeting was published in two pieces by the Granite Falls Advocate Tribune in Meeting held in Granite Falls about potential land transfer while our audio file completed the meeting.

Fortunately, a YouTube of the meeting was posted today.

Here's the YouTube of the meeting created by Clean Up The River Environment (CURE),  a grassroots environmental and clean energy organization based in Montevideo, Minnesota. CURE supports the legislation.

Bluestem thinks its important to have the video of this event on hand, since the available reporting from area newspapers varied at time from what we'd listened to on the audio that was available to us.  

It's an occupational hazard for journalists covering a wide ranging meeting that includes history many Minnesotans and Americans don't know too well. Fortunately, two scholars of Dakota history--also Yellow Medicine citizens--were on hand to give testimony.

News Digest

The most recent article was published today in the Granite Falls Advocate Tribune, .Crowd gathers for information meeting about potential transfer of land. Bluestem is waiting for our spanying-new subscription to kick in so I can read the article and share excerpts from the weekly paper's coverage.

Last week in the West Central Tribune, Linda Vanderwerf reported in Land transfer and closing of Upper Sioux Agency State Park draws a crowd, pleas for more communication:

 A transfer of Upper Sioux Agency State Park land to the Upper Sioux Community won’t result in a loss of recreational opportunity in the area, state leaders said at an informational session Wednesday evening.

More than 200 people crowded into a room and the hall outside at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Granite Falls to hear state and tribal officials discuss the proposed transfer.

The session was hosted by Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, and Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent. They said they hoped the meeting could answer people's questions.

The panel of speakers included representatives from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Historical Society. Also on the panel were Dave Smiglewski, mayor of Granite Falls but participating in the meeting representing the park supporters’ group, and Yellow Medicine County Commissioner John Berends.

Leaders of the Upper Sioux Community for years have asked to have the park land, which is sacred to them, returned to the community, several state officials said.

Until this year, the discussion didn’t move beyond that. Now, legislation moving through the Minnesota House and Senate could lead to the land transfer. . . .

Read the rest at the Tribune. At the Marshall Independent. Deb Gau reported in Tribe: Park not recreational land:

People crammed into a cafeteria in Granite Falls Wednesday night in order to learn more about a proposal to transfer ownership of the Upper Sioux Agency State Park lands to the Upper Sioux Community. While a panel of speakers took questions and comments for more than two hours, they said there were still a lot of details about the proposed transfer that will need to be worked out.

“We are early in this process. There’s a lot that we do not know,” said David Kelliher, director of government relations for the Minnesota Historical Society.

Members of the public at the meeting spoke out both in support of the land transfer, and questioning it. Some audience members also criticized what they said was a lack of communication about the land transfer proposal.

This spring, a pair of bills have been introduced in the Minnesota House and Senate that would potentially start the process to transfer ownership of Upper Sioux Agency State Park lands to the Upper Sioux Community. . . .

Upper Sioux Community Tribal Chairman Kevin Jensvold, and DNR Southern Region Director Scott Roemhildt, said the request to transfer the state park land to the Upper Sioux Community was not new.

“One thing I think it’s important to know is that in the 11 years that I’ve been meeting with the Upper Sioux Community, each year Chairman Jensvold has requested that Upper Sioux Agency State Park be returned to the Yellow Medicine People of the Upper Sioux Community,” Roemhildt said.

Jensvold said Upper Sioux Community members faced access barriers to the state park for spiritual or ceremonial purposes.

“And that set wrong, because the context of that park was historic tribal treaty land,” Jensvold said.

“These are historic problems. I don’t know anybody in here who can raise their hand to say they have to pay to go visit their relatives’ graves. I don’t see anybody in here, you know, having that difficulty that this park poses. That was the initial catalyst,” he said. Other factors like the deterioration of the park’s interpretive center and the decommissioning of the main road through the park led the Upper Sioux Community to take the request to the state Legislature, Jensvold said.

Roemhildt said the bills at the Minnesota House and Senate would get the process of looking at a land transfer started.

“Our understanding is that those are process bills. One of the things that they require is that the DNR submit a report by December 15, and one of the things that report needs to do is identify any obstacles to transferring the park, along with possible legislative solutions to those obstacles,” he said. “And so in the coming months, that’s going to be one of our responsibilities, and along with that we’re going to be looking at public engagement and speaking to different groups that have interests with the park. While we don’t have that in place yet just because things have been moving quickly, it’s something that we plan to do.”

Ann Pierce, parks and trails division director for the Minnesota DNR, said the DNR has been exploring what a land transfer process for the park would be like.

“There are a number of people, a number of groups that are involved in the process for transferring land like this, and that would include the federal government, the state Legislature, the Minnesota Historical Society, the Department of Natural Resources,” Pierce said.

Jensvold said $5.3 million was also being requested on behalf of the state of Minnesota to create replacement recreation area for the park.

“The $5.3 million that is in the bill would allow us to use that money to help replace recreational values that the park holds, and then there is also the value of the land. And so that is a piece that is in the bill, and that is a process that we will work through,” Pierce said.

“As a tribe, we do not believe that place should be viewed as recreational land,” Jensvold said of the current state park. “It is a very solemn, historic and sacred piece of land that our people have lived on and occupied for 10,000 years. And look, what occurred in 1862 on that piece of land, it was neither pretty, it was neither human-like, and it was a very, very important time in history that shaped where we’re at today.”

Several members of the public asked if any of the current park land or resources would be accessible to people outside the Upper Sioux Community if the bills pass.

“That’s one of the questions that’s been posed many, many times to us,” Jensvold said. “As a tribal council, we haven’t really come to terms with the potential that exists in front of us at the moment. But we do know this — it will be treated in a respectful and solemn manner, for all peoples to remember what occurred there.” . . .

Willmar Radio interviewed Senator Gary Dahms, Redwood Falls-R, in About 200 attend Upper Sioux State Park transfer meeting. Dahms focused on the potential replacement of the park:

. . . Dahms says there were two representatives from The Minnesota DNR, two representatives from The Minnesota Historical Society, Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski, Yellow Medicine County Commissioner John Berends, and Kevin Jensvold, Chair of the Upper Sioux Community. Under state law, if the state gives up the state park, the DNR must create an equal amount of new park space, in this case 1280 acres, somewhere else, although it doesn't specify where. Those at the meeting Tuesday night wanted it in the local area...

. . .Dahms said Jensvold says they plan to use the current park property for religious purposes and leave it in it's natural state. Dahms says he thinks there is 5.3 million dollars to purchase more park property in the bonding bill. The land transfer bill has been heard in The Senate Environment Committee, was amended in The Transportation Committee, and then referred back to The Senate Environment Committee. Upper Sioux Agency State Park is located on the Minnesota River southeast of Granite Falls. The main road to the park has deteriorated which has affected access to the park.

Jensvold said at the informational meeting that he'd held a Zoom meeting with Swedzinski months ago in which the transfer was discussed.

As I noted in an earlier post, I'd heard oyate members say over the years that their hope was to have the park land returned, though they weren't speaking in an official capacity. Nonetheless, the notion of a land transfer didn't come as a surprise when I read the bills this winter.

Bluestem hopes the legislation passes.

Related posts

• Area legislators to host April 5 community meeting in Granite Falls about transfer of park to Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate.
• Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer clears first MN House committee hearing
• Upper Sioux Community/Pezihutazizi Oyate land transfer bill heard in two MN Senate committees, 

Photo: The packed meeting room for the informational hearing last Wednesday evening. Submitted photo.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

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