The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will be hosting three open houses on the wild rice sulfate standard rulemaking in January 2017. The main purpose is to provide the interested public with an opportunity to learn more about the MPCA's proposed approach for revisions to its wild rice sulfate water quality standard before the proposed rule goes on public notice later in 2017. MPCA staff will be available to provide information about the agency's proposed approach to protect wild rice from sulfate, the list of proposed wild rice waters, the rulemaking schedule and upcoming opportunities for public comment.
Additional information about the wild rice sulfate water quality standard is available here.
Open house events are scheduled for:
Tuesday, Jan. 17, 6 – 8 p.m., Dakota Lodge, Thompson County Park, 1200 Stassen Lane, West St Paul
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., UM-Duluth, Kirby Student Center, Griggs Center, 2nd floor, 1120 Kirby Drive, Duluth
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 6 – 8 p.m., Northeast Service Cooperative Office, 5525 Emerald Drive, Mountain Iron
More information about the open houses is available here.
Scientists say high levels of sulfate in water damages wild rice by increasing sulfides and restricting plant growth. PCA officials — under pressure from mining companies, state lawmakers and environmental and tribal groups — are working to find out what levels of sulfate can be allowed and still protect wild rice beds.
Photo: Photo credit, University of Minnesota, National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics.
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As global temperatures warm, Minnesota residents need to prepare for increases in catastrophic "mega-rains" and a greater spread of tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease, according to a draft environmental report card for the state.
The report card comes from the Environmental Quality Board, a coordinating body for state government agencies on environmental issues. The board will discuss the draft Dec. 21. The final version will provide a foundation for the Minnesota Environmental Congress in February.
The report card is organized around five key areas: water, land, air, energy and climate. Each section uses three metrics to assess how well Minnesota's environment is doing in those areas. It rates their current status as green, yellow and red to correspond with good, OK and poor. And it uses up arrows, flat arrows or down arrows to indicate recent trends.
"We're hoping it's pretty user-friendly. It's designed for a broad audience," Will Seuffert, the EQB's executive director, said Monday.
Bluestem has downloaded the EQB agenda packet for December 21, 2016, since we agree wth Seuffert's assessment about this document being designed for a broader audience and split out the document for our readers.
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Willmar residents are working together on another thoughtful response to last week's tragic drownings of 10-year-old Idris Hussein and 11-year-old Ahmed Hashi in Foot Lake.
"These two young children have to be the last, last, last, last," one man had said at their June 28 burial, yelling louder with each word.
Area groups like Willmar Community Education and Recreation and the YMCA have provided traditional swimming lessons to the Willmar community for years.
Pam Vruwink of WCER says there's a gap between what is currently offered and what is needed. She's working to fix it.
"I think it's really important that we are flexible and respond to the needs of the community," Vruwink said. "We need to reevaluate what we're currently providing."
Traditional swimming lessons aren't always the perfect fit for all, culturally or practically.
So WCER is in the preliminary stages of planning several introductory water safety sessions, with a goal to teach children and others common water hazards and how to help out if they see someone in trouble. . . .
With the sticker price for traditional swimming lessons through WCER ringing in at $45 per session, without scholarships, some are unable to participate.
Since last week's drowning, WCER has been approached by several businesses and groups wanting to contribute financially to the cause and help sponsor students.
"They say, 'We see the value in swimming lessons,'" Vruwink said.
Older students in the Willmar School District can receive swimming lessons through middle school gym classes, but some don't participate, for religious objections or otherwise.
"There are a number of girls that aren't participating, because of the clothing, religious beliefs," Vruwink said.
There, WCER saw another gap. It began offering a girls-only swimming lesson class this summer.
It's great to see the community rise to answer the cry from the heart by the man at the burial in a practical way. Readers who want to help financially provide or physically teach swimming lessons can call the WCER office at 320-231-8490, the West Central Tribune reports.
Photo: Mementos left by well-wishers last week near the spot where Idris Hussein and Ahmed Hashi drowned.
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The water quality in Minnesota lakes has a measurable economic benefit, members of the Whitefish Area Property Owners Association learned at the organization's annual meeting.
Patrick Welle, a professor emeritus from Bemidji State University, studied the relationship extensively and published several papers on the topic. Welle told the group at its June 11 meeting his studies found that not only is the clarity of water a factor in lakeshore property value, it's actually the "most important explanatory factor."
"Economics shows that it is much cheaper to do prevention effectively than it is to try to do mitigation after the fact," Welle said. "And some damages are irreversible."
A study Welle and three others produced in 2003 examined the effect of water quality on lakeshore property values within the Mississippi River headwaters region. This included lakes in Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison and Aitkin counties. The study was later updated with more recent data and resulted in similar conclusions.
"Water quality has a positive relationship with property prices," the 2003 study stated. "Implicit prices of water quality was determined and calculations were made to illustrate the changes in property prices on the study lakes if a 1-meter change in water clarity would occur. Expected property price changes for these lakes are in the magnitude of tens of thousands to millions of dollars. The evidence shows that management of the quality of lakes is important to maintaining the natural and economic assets of this region." . . .
Lake home buyers prefer cleaner water? While we would hope that Minnesotans would value clean water out of the goodness of their deeply-felt ethical systems, at this point, we'll settle for better real estate appraisals.
People in conservative Crow Wing County might not want to invest in sneering at environmentalism. Perkins writes:
According to 2008 data from the University of Minnesota Extension, tourism and second homeownership spending in Crow Wing County is the third highest outside of the Twin Cities metro area.
Watson said these figures are strong evidence of a need to manage water quality and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species.
"Realtors have stated that the first questions people ask when they're looking at lakefront property is, 'Does it have zebra mussels? Does it have milfoil?'" Watson said. "We need to get the attention of elected officials. They have a major asset here."
Photo: Do serpents affect property values? Photo credit:The Crosby Serpent. By Elkman - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=859773.
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Why isn't Governor Dayton and his agencies talking about this? Water quality is actually improving, as many of us know. Read out state MPCA report here.
When the clean water evidence is different than the narrative those on the LEFT are projecting, they simply ignore the evidence and push for tougher standards.
The screenshot:
While Drakowski's friend and the former state senator deliver confident answers about the Dayton administration's motives, a quick review of the MPCA's website exposes a far different answer to Drazkowski's question.
Truth is, the agency is "talking about" the report. It's Drazkowski who's presented it out of context, as an orphaned document collecting cyberdust somewhere on the MPCA's website.
Minnesota’s water has come a long way from the days when raw sewage flowed untreated into rivers as a matter of course. However, there is still a lot of work to be done if we are going to restore the impaired lakes, rivers, and streams in the state. Land use is a major factor in our current water quality problems — agricultural drainage, urban and rural runoff, and erosion caused by removing vegetation from shorelines. It's not just the regulated facilities like wastewater treatment plants that need to do more, it's all of us — the citizens.
In general, Minnesota streams in the northeast part of the state are in better condition than elsewhere. Stream conditions — including the condition of fish and other organisms, and levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants — worsen as you move west and south in the state. The changes correspond to the type and intensity of land use in each ecoregion, due to the differences in soils, climate, and other factors.
Overall conditions
Good progress has been made — mostly through improved wastewater treatment by cities and businesses — in reducing the levels of several pollutants in Minnesota waterways, including phosphorus, ammonia, and bacteria.
The amount of organic matter — primarily sediment and algae — in the water has been reduced overall, which helps keep oxygen in the water at healthy levels.
Nitrogen is the key, high-volume pollutant in state rivers and streams and has been increasing over time. Chloride concentrations are also rising.
Current regulations and voluntary best management practices will not be sufficient to maintain healthy rivers and streams and shield impaired ones from additional pollution. Even if all existing laws were followed to the letter, waterways would still be subject to unacceptable levels of nutrients and other contaminants. Targeted action will be required to cut off unregulated sources of pollution.
Long-term trend analysis of seven different water pollutants measured at 80 locations across Minnesota for more than 30 years shows consistent reductions in five pollutants, but consistent increases in two pollutants. Concentrations of total suspended solids, phosphorus, ammonia, biochemical oxygen demand, and bacteria have significantly decreased, but nitrate and chloride concentrations have risen, according to data from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) “Milestone” monitoring network. Recent, shorter-term trends are consistent with this pattern, but are less pronounced. Pollutant concentrations show distinct regional differences, with a general pattern across the state of lower levels in the northeast to higher levels in the southwest.
These trends reflect both the successes of cleaning up municipal and industrial pollutant discharges during this period, and the continuing challenge of controlling the more diffuse “nonpoint” polluted runoff sources and the impacts of increased water volumes from artificial drainage practices.
The report itself is linked on the bottom of this page, under the section title: Dive deeper: a more in-depth look at our rivers and streams. The agency is sharing this report. Indeed, it's used as the foundational document for "the bottom line on rivers and streams."
Moreover, the Environmental Quality Board's Beyond the Status Quo: 2015 EQB Water Policy Report focused one section on approaches to reducing chloride, one of the two pollutants that the 2014 report found to be increasing. At the Governor's Water Summit, much of the discussion about rural water quality centered around nitrates/nitrogen pollution in groundwater, as well as rivers and streams.
But there's more. The report notes that its data set ends at 2010, since a new framework for measuring water quality has been adopted following the approval by Minnesota voters of more tax dollars dedicated to water quality (among other things):
The Minnesota Milestone sites are a collection of 80 monitoring locations at rivers and streams across the state with good, long-term water quality data. The period of record is generally more than 30 years, through 2010, with monitoring at some sites going back to the 1950s.While the Milestone sites are not necessarily representative of Minnesota’s rivers and streams as a whole, they do provide a valuable and wide-spread historical record for many of the state’s waters.
Monitoring was done by MPCA staff for a standard set of key pollutants on a regular basis, usually monthly for 9 to 10 months of the year. Generally, sites were sampled each year through the mid-1990s, at which time the sampling frequency was reduced to two out of every five years on a rotating basis. In some cases and when appropriate for this report, data from the Milestone sites has been supplemented with data collected at the sites through other monitoring efforts. All water quality data is stored in the Environmental Quality Information System (EQuIS).
In 2010 the Minnesota Milestone program was superseded by the Minnesota Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network, which will be used to evaluate water quality trends in the future. This new network has more than twice as many monitoring sites, much more frequent monitoring, and includes streamflow to document not only the concentration of pollutants, but also pollutant loads, flow weighted mean pollutant concentrations, and watershed pollutant yields.
Establishment of basin and major watershed monitoring sites within the network began in 2007 following the passage of Minnesota’s Clean Water Legacy Act with subsequent funding from the Clean Water Fund of the Minnesota Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. Establishment of subwatershed monitoring sites began in 2011 with all sites scheduled to be operational by 2015.
Moreover, the watershed approach led to the addition of data from lakes, while the earlier report only gathered information from "80 monitoring locations at rivers and streams across the state with good, long-term water quality data," the new report included water quality data from lakes. The "swimmable" part of the report summary notes:
How are our watersheds? Water quality is a reflection of what happens on the surrounding land. So far, MPCA's monitoring and assessment work highlights the following themes:
In watersheds dominated by agricultural and urban land, half or fewer of the lakes fully support the standard for swimming because of phosphorus. Excess phosphorus is the main driver of harmful algae in lakes.
Watersheds that are heavily farmed tend to have high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended solids in their waters. These pollutants hurt aquatic life and recreational opportunities.
Bacteria levels in streams are also a problem. Watersheds where fewer than half the streams fully support swimming because of bacteria levels are generally in areas with a higher density of people and livestock – the developed and agricultural portions of the state.
More lakes fully support the swimming standard in the more forested and wetland-rich areas of north-central and northern Minnesota. The same goes for streams in areas with lower populations and little animal agriculture.
The general pattern is that water quality is exceptionally good in the northeast part of the state and declines moving toward the southwest
It's worth remembering that report Draz imagines isn't part of the Governor and agencies' discussion (in reality, it is) noted that measured phosphorus levels dropped in the rivers and streams measured at the Minnesota Milestone sites because of stricter discharge standards for "point" pollution at wastewater facilities. Additionally, legislation Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, introduced and passed in 2005, banned the use fertilizers containing phosphorus for lawns by Minnesota homeowners excerpt under certain circumstances.
Remember, the earlier Minnesota Milestone sites monitoring also found nitrate pollution to be rising--and this comes from "non-point" sources like agricultural uses.
The broader framework allowed by the new system--brought about by a statewide popular--didn't result in a contradiction of the earlier data examined in the earlier report. Instead, the reports are complementary. Perhaps that's why Dayton's administration uses both of them at the MPCA. Draz and Al must have thought they had one heckova talking point there. Nope.
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Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has ceded ground to farm interests and Republicans over a contentious aspect of his plan to require vegetative buffer strips to help protect water from agricultural runoff.
Privately owned drainage ditches are off the table, Dayon announced Friday morning.
This is more than just a Friday news dump, in a state fixated on the presidential caucus just across the Iowa border. By suspending the mapping project--which is in the statute--the governor has caved into those who believe that private landowners have no responsibility for prevention in protecting water quality.
It's the ultimate dump, period.
When combined with drinking water quality projects in the bonding bill that pay the cost of removing nitrates from drinking water, those whose practices pollute surface and groundwater are essentially being told: don't change, the public will pay for the damage to water (a public resource) that your business inflicts.
Here's the press release:
Statement from Governor Dayton on Water Quality Buffer Law
The following is a statement from Governor Mark Dayton.
“After meeting yesterday afternoon with House Republican leaders, I have, with great reluctance, instructed the Department of Natural Resources to stop its mapping of so-called ‘private ditches’ under last year’s buffer legislation. The Republican legislators insisted that they did not intend those ditches to be included in the scope of the legislation, even though its buffering requirements would not take effect until November 2018.
“Threats have been reported to me that DNR and BWSR’s bonding requests – which are urgently needed to address the state’s serious water quality and infrastructure challenges – would not be considered by House leadership, if private ditches were not retroactively exempted from the new buffer requirement. I will not put at risk the water quality improvements in my bonding proposal and other critical bonding measures over this dispute.
“I am deeply disappointed by this, because we should require all Minnesotans to take responsibility for the quality of the water that they pass on to their fellow citizens. I thought that we had achieved a modest agreement in the last legislative session about the urgent need to improve the quality of Minnesota’s waters by limiting their pollution from runoffs from private and public ditches. I consider this fierce opposition by the House Republican leadership, as evidence that we are a very long ways from bipartisan agreements even on the severity of our state’s water quality problems, much less on the need to take serious steps to improve it.
“I will not cease my efforts to impress upon all legislators and all Minnesotans the hard facts about the overall deterioration of our state’s water quality, and what we must do to reverse it.”
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Representatives Dan Fabian, R-Roseau and Steve Green, R-Fosston will host Representative Denny McNamara,R-Hastings, Chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee, for listening sessions.
The schedule:
Morning
What: Environment Listening Session with Rep. Steve Green, Rep. Dave Hancock & Rep. Denny McNamara When: Wednesday, February 3rd from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM Where: D & R Café, 27 Central St. W. Bagley, MN
Afternoon
What: Environment Listening Session with Rep. Dan Fabian and Rep. Denny McNamara When: Wednesday, February 3rd from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Where: Thief River Falls City Hall, Council Chambers 205 Third Street East Thief River Falls, MN
Fabian's press release:
On Wednesday February 3, 2016, Representative Dan Fabian (R-Roseau) will be hosting an Environment Listening Session with Representative Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), Chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee.
The listening session will cover numerous constituent concerns related to land, water and wildlife laws and regulations, including those set by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
"Folks in Northwest Minnesota, including landowners, businesses and local units of government are greatly affected by state government, and I have heard from a number of constituents concerned about everything from buffers to wildlife management," said Rep. Fabian. "I look forward to hosting this meeting, hearing first-hand about the concerns residents are facing so we can tackle these issues at the State Capitol."
Fabian strongly encourages area residents to attend the listening session to share their thoughts, opinions and questions about the State of Minnesota's environmental rules and regulations.
Here are the details:
What: Environment Listening Session with Rep. Dan Fabian and Rep. Denny McNamara When: Wednesday, February 3rd from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Where: Thief River Falls City Hall, Council Chambers 205 Third Street East Thief River Falls, MN
I am pleased to announce that I am hosting an environmental listening session in Bagley on Wednesday, February 3 at the D & R Café, 27 Central St. W., from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Joining me at the event will be State Representative Dave Hancock and Chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee, Rep. Denny McNamara.
I encourage you to attend this event and share your thoughts, opinions, and questions about environmental rules and regulations in the State of Minnesota.
If you have any questions regarding this event or another legislative issue, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached via phone at 651-296-9918 or by email at rep.steve.green@house.mn. I hope to see you there
Bluestem encourages everyone in the districts to attend the listening sessions to let your state representative and Chairman McNamara know your thoughts about clean water, soil health and wildlife.
Many citizens also find it useful to videotape listening sessions for future reference, as well as live tweet and Facebook about the meetings.
Photo: Representative Denny McNamara, R-Hastings.
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Continuing his focus on water quality throughout Minnesota's farmlands, Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday said the state is seeking federal approval for a nearly $800 million plan to permanently protect 100,000 acres across southern and western Minnesota.
The plan, which seeks a mix of state and federal funds, aims to purchase permanent conservation easements on privately owned wetlands, vegetative strips along waterways, and drinking water sources. Willing landowners would be paid a lump sum in exchange for the rights to farm or build on the land forever.
"These would be numerous small slices of land all over the landscape," said John Jaschke, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources, which would be tasked with overseeing the program. Wetlands would be restored, and farmed lands would be planted with natural grasses. . . .
For the past year, Dayton's administration has repeatedly underscored the connection between the state's most polluted waters and modern farming practices. For example, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency earlier this year examined 93 streams in southwestern Minnesota and found only three capable of supporting aquatic life and only one with clean enough water to be considered safe for swimming. The issue is also affecting drinking water sources, as nitrates from fertilizer percolate through soils into groundwater.
The Legislature approved a modified version of Dayton's plan to require buffer strips of vegetation along rivers, streams and ditches to reduce erosion and pollution from farm fertilizer and pesticide runoff.
Monday's proposal is related; federal subsidies through various programs are available to landowners to help them plant buffer strips and compensate them for the loss of lucrative crops like corn and soybeans. Dayton's plan would add to those options for landowners, Jaschke said. In addition to wetlands and buffers along streams, the plan would also seek to protect landscapes where underground drinking water wells can be tainted by pollution on the land above. . . .
Orrick reached powerful opponent of the plan, Dan Busselman, director of public policy for the Minnesota Farm Bureau, as well as an influential water quality champion in the Minnesota House, state representative Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, who also farms near Harmony. Read the piece at the Pioneer Press.
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is an offshoot of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the country’s largest private-land conservation program. Administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), CREP targets high-priority conservation issues identified by local, state, or tribal governments or non-governmental organizations. In exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and introducing conservation practices, farmers, ranchers, and agricultural land owners are paid an annual rental rate. Participation is voluntary, and the contract period is typically 10–15 years, along with other federal and state incentives as applicable per each CREP agreement.
This development appears to seek funding from an offshoot of a program that MN07 Congressman Collin Peterson had touted over the perceived mandatory taking of property in Dayton's original buffer proposal. Back in June, Brownfield Ag News reported that the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee pointed to CRP in buffer debate:
Congressman Collin Peterson’s solution to the buffer bill proposed by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton lies in the federal Farm Bill.
Peterson, the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, says a widely used provision exists that provides federal funding for voluntary buffer strips.
“The continuous CRP. It is available year round. There’s acres available under that program. We’ve put in additional incentives, so we’re paying two to three times what we pay for normal CRP if people sign up in the continuous CRP buffer program.”
He tells Brownfield he thinks it’s dangerous to put any kind of set-in-stone number in place like Dayton did with the original buffer language. Peterson has spoken to the governor and some state legislators about promoting CRP instead of pushing a mandatory taking of property.
You may have read information about Continuous CRP and are wondering how it differs from CREP. While both programs focus on environmentally sensitive land, CREP is a partnership between state and/or tribal governments and the federal government. This partnership is in place to address a high priority environmental problem. Land cannot be enrolled in CREP if your state does not have a CREP agreement.
How Do I enroll?
Your state must have a CREP agreement in place with FSA. If there is an agreement, land can be enrolled in CREP on a continuous basis provided it meets the eligibility requirements for the program. Any land that meets basic CRP eligibility requirements, plus the additional requirements for a specific CREP project, is automatically eligible for enrollment. Most additional CREP land eligibility requirements apply to the location and characteristics of the land to be enrolled. All enrollment offers are processed through your local FSA office.
It will be curious to see how supportive Peterson will be of the Governor's proposal, as well as the reaction by members of the Minnesota legislature, which will convene on March 8.
Sources tell Bluestem that a tweet in late July by Minnesota House Ag Policy Vice Chair Mary Franson is accurate about the principle authors in the House of the final buffer bill language:
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In Friday's Morning Take, we read about promotional activities for tomorrow's Governor's Pheasant Opener near Mankato. Lt. Governor Tina Smith
At 4:00pm, the Lt. Governor and the Nicollet Conservation Club will take a guided boat tour of Swan Lake, the largest prairie pothole marsh in the contiguous United States.
It's good to see the lake valued and we hope Smith enjoys the tour.
Back in the early 1970s, the shallow prairie lake was a candidate for becoming the cooling pond for a coal-fired power plant. In 2013, the New Ulm Journal reported in Swan Lake meeting draws a crowd:
A roomful of outdoors enthusiasts energetically told of their past and present experiences on Swan Lake at the Nicollet Conservation Club on Tuesday.
Hosted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Nicollet County Historical Society (NHS), the event about one of the largest prairie pothole lakes in the lower 48 states included a wide array of information and story telling by DNR and NHS officials as well as area sports enthusiasts.
Once twice the size it is now, Swan Lake was Minnesota's largest marsh-wetland ecosystem before it was drained for more farmland decades ago. . . .
Swan Lake's water level is more stable than many other area lakes and sloughs. It's well vegetated," said Stein Innvaer of the Nicollet DNR office. "Northern States Power (NSP) was going to build a coal-fired power plant on the lake once.
[David Vesall, assistant game and fish director] and other officials of the DNR met with the Governor's Task Force on Power Plant Siting to explain the department's position on designation of the Lake. Swan Lake is one of seven sites proposed for development by Northern States Power Co. of a 1,600-megawatt fossil burning power plant.
It's possible, then, that Nicollet County could have going through the turmoil facing Sherburne County, rather than the tour today, had the fool-hardy choice to turn a duck-factory into an industrial site gone forward.
Yesterday, Bluestem Prairie watched the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Clean Power Plan Stakeholder meeting online, listening to representatives from utilities, environmental organizations and state legislators discuss the plan to reduce carbon emissions--and possibly slow climate change.
One legislator tweeted:
At Clean Power Plan mtg I am reminded/remember: Team work makes the Dream Work! Mn leadership works = problem solving.
What will happen in Becker as the two coal-fired units are phased out? Two Republican lawmakers fretted about that, but others, including an owner of a construction company, pointed out that clean energy also creates jobs.
. . . In 2023, Sherco Unit 2 will be shut down. In 2026, Sherco Unit 1 will be shut down and subsequently, Sherco Unit 2 will be converted to natural gas that same year.
Sherco’s larger, newer Unit 3, which has more modern pollution controls, would continue burning coal.
Xcel Energy said they are committed to continue to provide high pressure steam to Liberty Paper in Becker.
Newberger says the shutting down of Units 1 & 2 will eliminate about 150 full-time jobs.
“Xcel has informed me that many of these job eliminations will be by attrition and retirement,” Newberger said. “The rest will be reassigned to other areas within Xcel.”
Newberger also said he was relieved at the news that the currently employed will be able to remain employed if they do not retire.
“I am also relieved that creating a new gas plant will ensure some form of property tax base for the City of Becker,” he said.
But his frustration over the situation is still palpable.
“However, the fact remains that these 150 jobs will not be replaced with new workers as they would be if the plant were to continue its normal operation,” he said. “That means 150 fewer good-paying job opportunities for families in our area. The economic impact will be a staggering blow to Central Minnesota.” . ..
We'll be hearing a lot about those 150 local jobs at Xcel Energy, which will slowly be phased out as the workers filling them retire or move on to other opportunities as we move toward the shutdowns in 2023 and 2026.
We have to wonder, however, that Becker and Sherburne County might have something to dangle for companies looking to locate in Greater Minnesota. Skilled workers, quality housing, access to a freeway (and Highway 10), along with proximity to St. Cloud, the western suburbs, as well as natural amenities like the Mississippi River, the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, Sand Dune State Forest: all of these are assets.
Change is difficult--but part of leadership is to direct resources to toward the opportunities offered by it, rather than to exhaust resources and emotion in a rear-guard action against it.
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At Minnesota Public Radio, Dan Gunderson cuts to the chase in Money, race, politics tangle northern Minnesota land deal, a report on the White Earth Band of Ojibwe's request to the Outdoor Heritage Council to buy 2,000 acres by the Wild Rice River using a $2 million Minnesota Legacy Amendment grant.
Here are the money graphs:
. . . "Let's take the race element out of it, let's take the natives owning property out of it," she said. "I'd like for everyone involved to look at not who's owning the property, just what will this do for conservation."
There doesn't seem to be any question the land, owned now by Potlach Corp., is worth conserving. The parcels totaling 2,034 acres, are nearly surrounded by state wildlife management areas. The land White Earth wants to buy would be open for public use, much like state wildlife areas. . . .
Protecting this land from development will help protect water and wildlife, Chris Knopf, major gifts officer with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, said as he walked part of the property recently, a trail across a grassland surrounded by pines, poplar and aspen by the Wild Rice River.
White Earth, he added, is concerned about protecting water flowing into nearby Lower Rice Lake, a prolific wild rice lake where tribal members harvest thousands of pounds of rice every fall.
"The project stands on its own for its conservation merits. That's really gotta be the focus of the Outdoor Heritage Fund and the legislators as well," said Knopf, whose nonprofit works with tribes across the country to "help recover traditional lands." . . .
Susan Olson, who sits on the outdoor heritage council with McNamara, supported the White Earth project last year and will vote for it again this year.
She calls concerns about property taxes and non-state land ownership red herrings.
"If you put anybody else's name on this, if you just pretended that this was some county that was doing this ... everybody would be like, 'Oh my god, this is the best project ever,'" she said. "But it's all about who's asking for the money."
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White Earth Nation has resubmitted its proposal, "Protecting Forest Wildlife Habitat in the Wild Rice River Watershed," for consideration for a grant by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council (LSOHC) for Fiscal Year 2017.
The Ojibwe band is requesting $2,188,000 to acquire the land and protect 2,034 acres of forestland, riparian corridors, and open meadows that are home to bald eagles, trumpeter swans, black bear, gray wolves, whitetail deer, grouse and "much more," according to the proposal (see fact sheet and proposal embedded below.
While Steve Green, R-Fosston, objected to the proposal over issues related to payment in lieu of taxes (PILT), the proposal has been opposed by those irate over Ojibwe bands prohibiting wolf hunting on tribal lands. Traditional Ojibwe religion and culture cherish the gray wolf.
According to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation's Chris Knopf, the Wild Rice River proposal wasn't the only proposal that raised PILT issues, but it was the only one shot down by the legislature because of the issue. In a phone interview, Knopf said that the legislature should address perceived PILT problems separately, rather than punishing one grant applicant over the matter.
The dynamics are already in play in published summaries of the council members' comments. Council member Jane Kingston commented: "No PILT for 2034ac/$2.1M," while frequent native sovereignty critic Ron Schara wrote, "Need to discuss this proposal about changes. Legislature already eliminated it???"
Representative Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, raised the question of using the concept in the proposal, but stripping it from the control of the indigenous nation: "Should consider as a DNR WMA or AMA."
Susan Olson welcomed the re-appearance of the proposal: "Thank you for bringing this project back to the Council, it should never have been removed by the legislature for the last funding cycle. Good job addressing all of the points of contention raised by legislators during discusions of the bill. **Note re: criteria #8 - phrasing is specific to only restoration or enhancements, so a straight acquisition will be penalized because it is not possible to award any points based on the criteria."
Another wild card in the Council's future? Outdoor advocate Dill's death created a vacancy. Bluestem will have more more when we learn about the recommendation of Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, to fill the seat on the Council.
Bluestem believes it's a fine conservation project, made more urgent because the timber company that currently owns the property is actively offering more than 1500 for sale and the land may slip from public access if these games continue.
The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council was established by the legislature with the responsibility of providing annual funding recommendations to the legislature from the Outdoor Heritage Fund. The Outdoor Heritage Fund, one of four funds created by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, receives one-third of the money raised by the tax increase.
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Environmental advocates upset about a budget bill that includes several controversial policy provisions today picketed the governor’s mansion to demand a veto.
DFL Gov. Mark Dayton surprised them all by coming outside with cookies and a listening ear. He said he is still looking at all the budget bills and hasn’t decided whether to veto the environment and agriculture budget bill. But he reiterated the same doubts he raised on Wednesday during a news conference.
“Those items that you find offensive — and I agree with you — they didn’t get in there by accident. They got in there because we have a Republican-controlled House and DFL-controlled Senate,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to come back with a DFL bill … We’re in an era where we’re going to have to deal with some of these things we don’t like.”
Bobby King, a policy program organizer with the Land Stewardship Project, responded that some of the provisions, such as the elimination of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens’ Board, were inserted in closed-door meetings without a public hearing. . . .
Gov. Mark Dayton has already vowed to veto education funding legislation, citing early education as a top priority. A governor who has also championed water quality should swiftly veto another budget bill — the agriculture and environment spending legislation.
Signing it would put the gubernatorial stamp of approval on multiple measures that would weaken protections for Minnesota’s treasured waterways. Dayton, serving his final term and looking to burnish his legacy, would tarnish it if he let this shortsighted legislation sail through. It needs a do-over in the looming special session. . . .
That these measures even reached the governor’s desk is frustrating when Minnesota was poised this year to make serious progress on water cleanup. In January, Dayton boldly called for strengthening the state’s “buffer” law, which requires vegetative strips along many waterways. The strips help filter out agricultural runoff, a key source of river and stream pollution, especially in the southwestern part of the state. . . .
But there’s little positive to say about other water-related measures in the bill. Among other things, the legislation calls for dissolving the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s long-standing Citizens’ Board. The move smacks of retaliation on behalf of special interests. In 2014, the board voted to require an environmental-impact statement for a proposed 9,000-head dairy operation.
The bill also undermines a promising biofuels compromise between agricultural and environmental groups that could have helped attract biofuels investment in the state while creating incentives for growing perennials and cover crops. These fight water pollution naturally.
Other backward water-quality measures in the bill are almost too numerous to list. Wastewater facilities in the Red River watershed shouldn’t get a pass on meeting new standards. Diverting money dedicated to landfill cleanup is lousy policy. So is a move that could harm wild rice by exempting some mining waste from water protection rules.
Bluestem attended; we were impressed by the energy of the crowd and the presence of so many children, who enthusiastically accepted cookies from the Governor. Dayton said that he'll be looking over the legislation and will mostly likely announce his decision on Friday or Saturday.
There's still time to call or email Governor Dayton and join your voice with those of the protesters and the paper's editorial board. Readers can contact the Govenor's Office via these numbers and email form:
[T]he Legislature missed the mark on several key areas of the Agricultural and Environment Omnibus Budget Bill having final votes today, including:
Abolishing the Citizens’ Board of the Pollution Control Agency: The Citizens’ Board has worked well and is a model we can be proud of. Eliminating it is simply bowing to special interests.
Raiding Dedicated Environmental Funds: Even with $1 billion on the bottom line, this bill raids funds that are to prevent old landfills from contaminating our groundwater and surface water and clean up the pollution where it occurs.
Breaks the Compromise Agreement on Biofuels: The signed agreement between energy, agriculture, and environment stakeholders would establish the next-generation biofuel industry in Minnesota. This bill violates that agreement, undercutting our ability to establish perennial crops for ethanol production and develop new beneficial agricultural systems to protect and restore our lakes, rivers and streams in some our most polluted watersheds in the heart of ag country.
Provides Funding to Promote False Pollinator Labelling: The Legislature voted to allow deceptive advertising for “pollinator-friendly plants” that need only not kill bees upon first contact.
Rolling Back Wild Rice Standards: This language defies the Federal Clean Water Act by limiting the PCA’s authority to enforce our state water quality standards. Surprise Sulfide Mining Amendment: The bill exempts sulfide mining waste from solid waste rules. This amendment was never introduced as a bill or heard in any committee, and its future effect is unknown. Exempting as-of-yet unknown waste streams from potential sulfide mines is an unnecessary risk to water quality and public health.
Red River Rules Suspension: Delays enforcement of updated nutrient pollution permits for wastewater treatment facilities in the Red River watershed until 2025, unless approved by the U.S. EPA, North Dakota Department Health, and EPA Regions 5 & 8.
Polluter Amnesty: A polluter amnesty provision delays enforcement and waives penalties for regulated parties that self-report violations of environmental regulations. This provision needlessly strips the MPCA of its powers to hold polluters accountable for protecting our natural resources.
“Overall, the Ag and Environment Omnibus moves us in the wrong direction for Minnesota’s Great Outdoors, and it’s not what the people of Minnesota want,” said Morse. “Our coalition of 70 environmental and conservation nonprofits, representing over 450,000 Minnesotans urge the Governor to stand his ground for improving water quality and veto this bill.”
Photo: Children at the rally were charmed by Dayton and his cookies, while adults listened to Dayton's words about the bill.
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See below for the update on the buffers initiative.
Bobby King of the Land Stewardship Project sends us this alert:
The legislature decided that instead of weakening the MPCA Citizens’ Board they would outright ELIMINATE it. This outrageous idea, which was not introduced as a bill or heard previously in any committee, was unveiled late Saturday night and adopted in conference committee. Forty seven years old, the Citizens’ Board was established in 1967 with the creation of the MPCA to ensure the agency serves the public interest and to establish an open and transparent decision making process. It has worked will and is a model the state should be proud of.
This language is included in the Agriculture and Environment Budget Bill along with many other bad provisions, including a sham buffer program that puts off addressing the issue of dealing with agricultural runoff. Read more in this letter from the Minnesota Environmental Partnership to legislators.
There is negotiating going on now to potentially take some of the bad provisions out of the bill. We need calls to the Governor’s office now to keep this on his radar.
Call Gov. Dayton at 651-201-3400 or 800-657-3717 and say “The Ag and Env Budget bills ELIMINATES the MPCA Citizens’ Board. This is a terrible idea. The Citizens’ Board has been around for over 40 years and creates an open and transparent decision making process that helps guard against undue corporate influence. This entirely new proposal was adopted late at night and is outrageous. Governor veto this if it is sent to you.”
Via Minnesota Public Radio, the Associated Press reports the outline of the deal in New buffer strip plan speeds implementation, carries fines.
Here's the final letter that the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and partners sent to legislators objecting to many provisions in the conference committee report. From eliminating the Citizens Board to providing funding to promote false pollinator labeling, this is a bad bill.
Photo: Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Chair Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) and Minnesota Senate Finance - Environment, Economic Development and Agriculture Budget Division Committee Chair David Tomassoni (DFL-Chisholm) confer over the smorgasbord of special interest goodies. Photo by Paul Battaglia via Session Daily.
Bluestem readers may remember some of our earlier posts on these charming chaps.
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Given that much of the responsibility for the pollutants on the maps above lies at the feet of agricultural land use, the release of "Swimmable, fishable, fixable? What we've learned so far about Minnesota waters" by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency should provoke wailing and gnashing of teeth as well as tears from the state's ag storytellers, apologists and the legislators who enable them.
- A new report released today by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) provides additional evidence that agricultural and urban runoff is contributing significantly to the impairment of Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, and streams. The new study, which monitored half of the state’s 81 major watersheds, takes an in-depth look at the lakes and streams in major drainage areas. According to the MPCA, it is unlikely that current or new clean water funding can significantly improve the deteriorating conditions of many of the state’s waters – unless the state employs new strategies to prevent the pollution from happening in the first place.
The study, “Swimmable, Fishable, Fixable?” (www.pca.state.mn.us/fixable), found that poor water quality is concentrated in certain regions of the state, especially in southern Minnesota. MPCA researchers noted that in heavily farmed areas, surrounding lakes and streams had high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. These high levels make it difficult to support aquatic life, and in some cases prohibit people from swimming in lakes and streams. The report’s findings conclude that poor water quality in southern Minnesota waters is caused predominantly by agricultural runoff. Urban areas also suffer from elevated levels of water pollution caused by runoff.
“We have seen many of these patterns developing over the last 20 years. With the comprehensive watershed information we are gathering, we are much closer to a diagnosis that can point us toward the changes that need to happen,” said MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine. “While the Legacy Funds Minnesota citizens invested are helping us take steps forward, it’s clear that we can’t buy our way to healthy waters.”
Key Findings in the Report
The report released today was compiled by the MPCA over the last several years, and was funded by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Constitutional Amendment. The MPCA found that phosphorus and nitrogen, high bacteria levels, and mercury contamination continue to be problems in many of Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, and streams. These pollutants, which are typically the product of urban and agricultural land runoff, have left many bodies of water inadequate for human consumption and aquatic life. Key findings from the report include:
Urban and Agricultural Impact – Areas of Minnesota with larger human and livestock populations are struggling the most with water-quality. According to the MPCA study, runoff from land under intense urban or agricultural uses has left half or less of the lakes in those areas clean enough for healthy aquatic life and enjoyable swimming.
Bacteria Levels – Higher levels of bacteria were discovered in many Minnesota waters. Generally, higher levels of bacteria indicate feedlot runoff or human waste in a water body, indicating it may be unsafe for swimming and other recreation.
Mercury-Tainted Fish – Despite Minnesota’s progress in preventing mercury from entering lakes, rivers, and streams from our state’s power utilities and other sources, the MPCA study concluded that mercury remains widely present in fish. The vast majority of lakes and streams examined in the study – 97 percent of 490 stream sections and 95 percent of 1,214 lakes studied – contain fish tainted by mercury.
High Levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorus – The MPCA study also found that watersheds that are heavily farmed or developed tend to have high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended solids in their waters. Nitrogen and phosphorus can cause algal blooms while suspended solids make the water murky. These pollutants hurt aquatic life and recreational opportunities.
Problems Vary Regionally – While urban and agricultural runoff were the general source of problems across Minnesota, the types of pollution causing problems in specific bodies of water varied regionally. Typical problems included issues such as low oxygen levels, excess nutrients, excess sediment, disruption of natural water flows, a lack of habitat, and a lack of connectivity between different bodies of water.
Recommended Strategies to Improve Water Quality
In addition to identifying stressors and healthy conditions in Minnesota’s lakes and streams, the MPCA and partner agencies have recommended strategies to restore and protect our waters. Those recommendations include: stream buffers, nutrient and manure management, storm water controls, and in-lake treatments. While most strategies are tailored for their specific watersheds, some strategies recommended by the MPCA do call for stronger and more targeted application of state and local laws on feedlots, shoreland, septic systems, storm water controls, and wastewater discharges.
“We are in this for the long haul – and we are talking 20 or more years,” said Commissioner Stine. “We need continued vigilance to protect our healthy waters and take targeted action to restore those that are impaired. It took decades for our lakes and streams to become polluted, and it will take many more years to restore them.”
Photo: Maps of pollution by chemical, via the report.
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On Friday night, state representative and House Environment committee chair Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, seemed a bit miffed as he began his rambling and defensive closing remarks about the Environment and Natural Resources Finance bill.
How defensive? McNamara began his floor speech by dismissing claims that he's in the back pocket of Big Business:
I think it's interesting how we paint a bill and unfortunately we end up so partisan. Kind of interesting to hear how I'm the one in the pocket of big business. Fourteen years that I've been here and never taken a penny from a PAC, lobbyist, or special interest group and spent more time door-knocking than anyone in the body and I'm the one about big business.
If anyone here believes that, I think you're kind of a loner.
Here's the video:
That sort of loner-hood is the sort of thing that the respected Center for Responsive Politics--which focuses mostly on federal campaign finance and public disclosure issues--describes on its FAQ page in one item in a section on research and methodology:
In tracking campaign contributions from industries, why do you include contributions from individuals, and not just PACs?
CRP is the only organization that invests in categorizing campaign contributions by industry in a way that includes individuals' contributions, not just money from political action committees. Here's the logic behind our methodology: Since corporations and other organizations are prohibited from making political contributions from their treasuries, one must look at the contributions from people associated with the institution to gauge its political persuasion and how it might be trying to exert influence in Washington. Also, the Federal Election Commission requires disclosure of a donor's employer and occupation if they contribute more than $200, which suggests the government is concerned about individuals' economic, or industrial, interests. We know that not every contribution is made with the donor’s economic or professional interests in mind, nor do we assert that every donor considers their employer’s interests when they make a contribution. But our research over more than 20 years shows enough of a correlation between individuals’ contributions and their employers’ political interests that we feel comfortable with our methodology. We have also observed that the donors who give more than $200, and especially those who contribute at the maximum levels, are more commonly top executives in their companies, not lower-level employees.
This methodology, applied on the state level, may be what produces the sense of some that Representative McNamara is in the pocket of special interests.
No one has suggested that McNamara takes money from lobbyists or PACs. Instead, loners who accept the methodology of CRP's Open Secrets--and data there is used by both parties in critiquing federal candidates-- agree with this premise:
But our research over more than 20 years shows enough of a correlation between individuals’ contributions and their employers’ political interests that we feel comfortable with our methodology. We have also observed that the donors who give more than $200, and especially those who contribute at the maximum levels, are more commonly top executives in their companies, not lower-level employees.
The disclosure threshold for state giving is $100, rather than $200, but the principle is the same.
The MJC is credited as being one of the forces that flipped the Minnesota House; Ben Golnik, its chair, has become the executive director of the Minnesota House Republican Caucus.
The company itself funded the group, but several Offutt family members also gave campaign contributions to Representative Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), who was the lead Republican on the House Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee in the last session.
McGovern, Keith 09-17-2014 McNamara, Dennis House Dist. 54B Committee RDO $250.00
McGovern, Rondi 09-17-2014 McNamara, Dennis House Dist. 54B Committee RDO $250.00
Neal, Scott 09-16-2014 McNamara, Dennis House Dist. 54B Committee RDO $500.00
Keith McGovern and Scott Neal are the sons-in-law of RDO director emeritus Ron Offutt; Rondi is his daughter.
While that's a mere $1000--dwarfed by the privately-held company's contribution to Golnik's PAC--there's a fair chance that the donors (who don't appear to live in McNamara's district) understood that McNamara would once again chair the committee with oversight of the Department of Natural Resources budget.
According to Minnesota Legislators Past and Present, McNamara chaired the committee in the 2011-2012, and became the minority when the DFL retook the House in the 2012 election. The courtesy was discontinued with the ascendance of Speaker Daudt and Golnik.
So there's that--and earlier in Friday's debate, McNamara brought up the need to rewrite a law so that unnamed company wouldn't have to put up with the trauma of getting a sudden phone call from the Department of Natural Resources about how the agency was going to do a discretionary Environmental Assessment Worksheet about the consequences to water of your plan to turn pinelands into potato fields.
Not a penny of lobbyist or PAC cash directly to McNamara, but the interests of the Offutt family are being served by McNamara, who received their largesse--and benefited from its channeling to the MJC Legislative Fund PAC.
. . .the Offutts aren't the only ag interests who gave McNamara money last year--indeed, they're pikers compared to the Molitor Brother Farms family contributions.
According to a search of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board's individual campaign contribution database for political contributions by the Molitors and Thorkelsons, family members gave $12,700 to three candidates: Representative McNamara (R-Hastings); Representative Garofalo (R-Farmington); and Ryan Rutzick, who was defeated by Minnetonka DFLer Jon Applebaum.
Brent Molitor and Rita Molitor made two contributions totaling $700 to Rutzick, while Brian Molitor, Charles Molitor, Heather Molitor, Patrice Molitor, Eric Thorkelson and Sara Thorkelson each gave McNamara and Garofalo $1000, for a total of $6000 each.
According to Ownership interests information online at the EWG Farm Subsidy database, the Thorkelsons and the Molitors (with the exception of Brent) were the owners of Molitor Brothers Farm in 2012. Brent Molitor is employed by the farm, according to information at the Minnesota campaign finance site.
But there's more in the post:
Agriculture and ag lobbyist contributions for the HRCC and its allies in the 2013-2014 cycle
While other parts of the country are limited by water shortage and the need to import feed, Minnesota has plentiful opportunities with respect to both of these essential elements of a successful livestock operation. Unfortunately, new investment in this industry has been placed at risk due to recent actions by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens’ Board. Beyond the costs and delays of these projects, the recent Citizens’ Board action raises real questions about Minnesota’s willingness to accommodate growth and new investment in the animal agriculture sector. AgriGrowth will be asking the legislature to review the Board’s responsibilities and powers to ensure that Minnesota can become an inviting location for responsible growth and investment in Minnesota’s agricultural sector to provide new economic opportunities for farmers, rural communities, and our entire state.
So what sort of money did Big Ag put on the table to help flip control of the House? In this post, we won't be looking at contributions to individual campaigns, but rather contributions to the HRCC, the MN Job Coalition Legislative Fund and the MN Action Network IE Fund.
We found at least $295,000 in contributions over $10,000 given directly by Big Ag interests to these three committees. With smaller PAC contributions by commodity group and ag law/lobbying entities, the total easily approaches climbs over the $300,000 mark.
These contributions are by no means a complete picture of the political giving--merely that which we can dig out of state-level year-end campaign finance reports. Nor are we suggesting that the getting and spending only occurs on one side. The problem is one of transparency.
Two Davis family members gave a total of $75,000 to the HRCC, the committee's 2013 and 2014 year-end reports reveals. On December 31, 2013, Marty Davis, founder of Cambria, gave $25,000 to the HRCC; months later on October 9, 2014, he threw another $25,000 into the kitty. On September October 8, Mitch Davis of the Davis Family Dairies, contributed $25,000.
. . . contribution of at least $45,000 in cold hard campaign cash to the Minnesota state House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC; year-end report here) by members of the Fehr family, owners of Riverview Dairy. (Some might add in an additional $2500 donated by Mitch Fehr, to make the total rise to $47,500).
Tom Rosen, of Rosen's Diversified and the American Food Group, the nation's 5th largest beef processing company. gave $25,000 in 2013 and $25,000 in 2014, for a total of $50,000 for the cycle. Rosen Diversified gave the Minnesota Action Network IE Fund $50,000 on September 5, 2014.
Rosen's Diversified, Davis Family Dairies, New Horizon Feeds and the RD Offutt Company are all Agri-Growth Council members.
MN Jobs Coalition's Agribusiness Money from the Republican State Leadership Committee?
The Minnesota Jobs Coalition Legislative Fund also received $325,000 from the Republican State Leadership Committee. Although we can't determine if any of the Agribusiness contributions to the RSLC was earmarked for Minnesota, we can discern ag money in the pot.
Kraft Foods gave RSLC a total of $100,000; Kraft maintains a presence in Minnesota's dairy industry with cheese plants in New Ulm and Albany.
Archer Daniels Midland contributed $25,135 to the RSLC in 2014; the food-processing and commodities-trading corporation was founded in Minneapolis and maintains a large presence in the state.
Perhaps that has something to do with why people say Denny McNamara is in the pocket of industry. Not only did he receive large contributions from upper management-level individuals in industries regulated by--and seeking relief from--his committee, but industry special interests gave to PACs that were helping to smooth McNamara's ascendency to the committee chairmanship.
Other than that, McNamara's right: there's no reason for anyone to think he's got to where he is through anything other than knocking the snot out of doors in his district.
Photo: McNamara defends his honor and his omnibus bill on Friday night.
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A developer has proposed just such a hotel project, a $12 million, 69-unit Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, nine condominiums and a 4,000 square foot restaurant on the site of the former Capri Motel and surrounding commercial and residential property.
But the Detroit Lakes City Council has run into a beehive of legal threats and ethical accusations surrounding the project and the way it has handled voting at the committee and council level.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources emailed a letter April 8 addressed to Mayor Matt Brenk and the Detroit Lakes City Council, threatening to sue the city if it approved the hotel project.
The city council’s Community Development Committee voted to approve the project the next day and to send it on to the full city council with a recommendation for approval.
But that letter from the DNR threatening a lawsuit was not shared with CDC members prior to the vote.
Details, details.
The paper is coming around with a bit more comprehensive coverage after some public shaming in its own pages. In Newspaper, city not giving all info on hotel project, a letter to the editor, Willis Mattison wrote:
I notice that your online story about the Fairfield Inn shoreland development controversy now includes reference to the Minnesota DNR’s letter threatening lawsuit.
But why did you not reveal that the mayor and city staff received this letter on April 8?
Your online coverage would now come under the heading of “better late than never,” so thanks for that. But what may be worse than never carrying the story at all is omitting the larger picture about lack of “government accountability.”
As you know, this is the Minnesota DNR’s second letter to the city on the project, the first having only recommended that the Planning Commission deny the requested variances.
In the April 8 letter, for the first time, Minnesota DNR clearly threatens formal legal action should the city approve the project. Your reporting staff knows that the CDC, which met last Thursday (April 9), “green lighted” the project, as you reported.
As you must have noticed, the April 8 Minnesota DNR letter was addressed to the mayor and the members of the City Council. But the city council did not receive the letter until after the vote of the Community Development Committee.
Again, how in the name of good journalism could you possibly have left that part of the story out?
One further question: Is this significant omission in keeping with Forum Communications’ standards both journalistically and ethically?
Photo: Does this movie still from Citizen Kane now serve as a analogy for tensions between press (Mrs. Brenk) and government (Mr. Brenk) in Detroit Lakes? For an explication of the famous image, Breakfast with the Kanes.
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The choice likely signals a return to hostility toward applications for Heritage funds from Ojibwe bands, given some members' negative attitudes toward the bands' prohibition of wolf hunting. Gray wolves hold a special place in the bands' cultural belief systems, which position the animals as the indigenous people's brethren.
Many non-native hunters resented not being allowed to shoot wolves on native land. For the moment, it's an abstract discussion, since a federal judge's decision to close the hunt in the upper Great Lakes region.
Anderson most recently made his opinion clear at the December 11, 2014 meeting when he moved to strike funding that would allow the White Earth Band to acquire land along the Wild Rice River and its tributaries for wildlife habitat protection.
We've excerpted the discussion in the YouTube embedded below (complete audio here; minutes and meeting agenda here).
Representative Steve Green (R-Fosston) is an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, or Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg, but he's having nothing to do with a proposal the nation submitted to the Outdoor Heritage Fund.
The council that reviews and approves proposals included the nation's request in its recommendations to the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee today, but an amendment Green submitted removing the tribe's request passed on a roll call vote.
DFL Representative David Dill joined the Republican majority on the committee in voting down the proposal. . . .
Green's objections were not explicitly linked to the wolf hunt, but rather to a belief that the tribe doesn't pay enough taxes. (This claim had been vetted and rejected by the council, as one member notes in the December 11, 2014 tape).
The Legacy funding proposal came up in the House Legacy committee Monday, and an amendment was on the agenda to restore the funding, but the audio from that meeting has yet to be posted.
Bluestem believes that the election of Anderson as chair, was well as Speaker Daudt's appointment of Representative Dave Dill (DFL-Crane Lake) to replace South St. Paul DFLer Rick Hansen on the Council, signals a step backward for funding native projects. The Pioneer Press's Dave Orrick reported in New Lessard-Sams outdoor council set, and ready to disburse $100M:
Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake: Dill comes to the council amid a predictable fracas of finger-pointing. Daudt appointed Dill instead of Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul. Hansen and House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, both objected publicly, accusing Daudt reneging on a pledge of bi-partisan cooperation. Daudt hasn't responded, but the deed is done. Some areas to watch for possible contrast between Dill and Hansen: Whether Indian projects should be funded, how invasive species work should be viewed by the council, and whether any money from the Outdoor Heritage Fund should be spent to reimburse local governments for lost property tax revenues when land is purchased for protection. More on that below. Daudt also re-appointed Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings.
We'll see how this cultural conflict works out.
Photo: Canoes and wild rice. The White Earth project will also help preserve water quality necessary for wild rice.
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A young organizer at Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) has sent us this notice of a meeting with Minnesota Senate District 17 lawmakers in Willmar on Saturday, March 14:
Please join CURE and other conservationists for a District 17 Legislator Meeting with your elected officials, Senator Lyle Koenen, Representative Tim Miller and Representative Dave Baker. They have all confirmed with CURE that they will be able to join us and listen to our concerns about conservation during this meeting in Willmar.
Who: A face-to-face meeting with three of your elected officials, Senator Lyle Koenen, Representative Tim Miller and Representative Dave Baker.
What: A face-to-face meeting with three of your elected officials, Senator Lyle Koenen, Representative Tim Miller and Representative Dave Baker
When: Saturday, March 14th, 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM
Where: Executive Boardroom, Willmar Convention Center, 240 23rd St SE, Willmar, MN 56201. Follow signs once in building.
Why: This meeting will provide you with an opportunity to meet face-to-face with your elected officials to express your concerns and support for issues relating to agriculture, the environment, renewable energy and everything conservation related.
We're hoping that you will be able to join us and will let other concerned citizens know about this opportunity for their voices to be heard.
Share widely with your networks in the region. If you plan on attending, please let me [Kristian Nyberg CURE Energy Program Coordinator] know by simply responding to this email, or by calling the CURE office at 1-877-269-2873.
CURE is a grassroots, rural-based environmental group which works on clean water, clean energy and healthy soil in the Upper Minnesota River Valley.
Photo: A town hall in West Central Minnesota earlier this year.
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[Beth] Proctor, a Minnesota State University professor who in recent years has sought to strengthen regulations of a frac sand mining operation just noth of Mankato, asked about mining regulations. Bills under discussion at the Capitol would require legislative approval of water-protection standards. These standards have been controversial because they add to the cost of some Iron Range mining projects.
My research interests include evaluating nutrient flux in aquatic ecosystems and evaluating responses of biological indicators to environmental stressors, particularly responses of aquatic invertebrates to disturbances.
Considine sits on a mining and outdoor recreation committee and said the political reality there is that nine of its members are Republicans and four of its six Democrats are from the Iron Range.
"Quite frankly, there's a race to the microphone to tell mining companies how great they are when they're doing their pitches," he said. He acknowledged that Polymet, which is trying to build a large copper mine, is "trying to go in the right direction" regarding water quality.
But he was skeptical that a sulfide mining operation — where the ore is extracted from sulfide, which can create acid when exposed to air and water — can ever be environmentally safe.
That sort of statement might build resentment among his Range peers to the point that they might come down with chronic Range amnesia around the freshman DFLer. Let's hope they remember more than just their grudges.
Linehan reports:
Johnson said he opposes requiring legislative approval of water quality standards, which he called an attempt to "politicize water quality standards in the land of 10,000 lakes."
"Imagine the political pressures associated with (approving a water quality standard)," he said. "We’re in flush times now. It might be easier to do that now. We won’t always be in flush times."
There's that.
Photo: A blue-green algae bloom, via MPCA. The Star Tribune editorial notes:
Phosphorus is a pollutant that spurs algae growth and can turn sky-blue water into pea-soup green. Currently, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) takes the lead in determining water-quality standards and issuing permits for wastewater plants. . . .
The controversial bills, written by the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, would require legislative approval of water quality standards as well as an added layer of review.
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A letter from a powerful lobbying association demanding an apology was delivered to Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) after he asked pointed questions after it was revealed in committee on Thursday, February 26 that the group wrote wrote HF616.
Legislators, it seems, may not ask questions of lobbyists representing interests brought to the Minnesota legislature. But legislators (who are quite comfortable letting special interests write the bills) may grandstand about how scientists and civil servants are incapable of setting regulatory standards.
Who will those comfortable legislators turn to for advice, if not an agency's technical and scientific staff? Any guesses?
Regulatory capture is a theory associated with George Stigler, a Nobel laureate economist. It is the process by which regulatory agencies eventually come to be dominated by the very industries they were charged with regulating. Regulatory capture happens when a regulatory agency, formed to act in the public's interest, eventually acts in ways that benefit the industry it is supposed to be regulating, rather than the public.
Public interest agencies that come to be controlled by the industry they were charged with regulating are known as captured agencies. Regulatory capture is an example of gamekeeper turns poacher; in other words, the interests the agency set out to protect are ignored in favor of the regulated industry's interests.
Bluestem doesn't think that the MPCA is captured yet, but bills like HF 616, which a lobbyist for the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities admitted was written by the CGMC on behalf of those who face new standards for phosphorous in treated waste water, edges us closer to this normal and casual political corruption.
What's the matter with phosphorus?
Phosphorous, by the way, is the pollutant that causes those nasty-looking algae blooms. As some unfortunate pet dogs learned last summer, it's not just nasty-looking, it's toxic to animals that enter or drink the water.
The EPA has asked states to develop a standard for cities and other "point" sources to meet--though as John Persell has pointed out on March 3, many cities in Minnesota were ahead of the curve. He cited the example of Bemidji, which had done the right thing for its area lakes, which feed into the Mississippi River; removing the nutrients from its water removed them for those downstream.
Bull hockey: the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities' beef
The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities demands an apology from a east metro lawmaker after he appeared critical of the group last week during a House committee hearing.
However, Democratic-Farmer-Labor Rep. Rick Hansen of South St. Paul said Wednesday that what the coalition considered harsh questioning was part of his ongoing attempt to change the Capitol culture of giving special interest groups power.
A coalition lobbyist was testifying about an environmental bill affecting cities when Hansen asked if the group wrote the bill. Lobbyist Elizabeth Wefel said the coalition did.
Then Hansen turned to about campaign contributions.
"Is the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities one of the largest contributors to campaigns in the state of Minnesota?" he asked.
Wefel responded that cities cannot donate to campaigns or have political action committees that give to campaigns. . . .
Ah, but their paid lobbyists can (and do; see the searchable database here at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board).
There's another question as well that Hansen didn't raise. How much did the cities that are members of the CGMC pay for lobbying activities? In this case, that would involve writing the bill.
Fortunately, we don't have guess about this stuff, at least not for years past, for the office of the State Auditor (a constitutional office not to be confused with the Office of the Legislative Auditor) is charged with reviewing how much cities spend on lobbying services.
In addition to the $3.9 million paid directly to staff and contract lobbyists, local governments paid dues of $10,967,446 in 2013 to local government associations that also represented their interests before legislative, administrative, or other governmental bodies. . . . These associations spent $4,213,414 on lobbyists and lobbying in 2013. This represents an increase of 8.6 percent over 2012. Of the $4.2 million spent on lobbyists and lobbying by these associations, $3,837,539 was funded exclusively through dues. This represents an increase of 9.4 percent over the $3,509,101 in association dues that were spent on lobbying activities in 2012 (pg. 5).
And the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities? On page 11, under the headline Associations With the Highest Expenditures on Lobbying Services, we learn that the Coalition was the biggest spender, clocking in at $835,674.
Under Compensation Paid to Firms or Staff for Lobbying Services on page 12, the state auditor's report states:
In 2013, Minnesota local governments or associations of local governments paid ten firms or employee lobbyists $100,000 or more to provide lobbying services. . . . The ten firms or employees receiving $100,000 or more in payments from lo cal governments or associations of local governments are listed below in Table 3.
Leading the pack is Flaherty & Hood, P.A. at $894,740; the next lobby shop, Messerli & Kramer, received less than half that at $442,187.
Essentially, the hired guns of the cities--which are asking that water quality standards be set by the legislators--wrote the bill for the legislators. We don't imagine they'll stop paying those lobbyists when it comes time to set those standards.
In the meeting, Hansen said little about his motives for the line of questioning, other than: "Money is everywhere in our political system." . . .
Hansen told Forum News Service that he has begun asking questions like he did in McNamara's environmental committee because the Capitol culture has turned too much to favoring special interest groups.
Hansen, who said he will not apologize to the coalition, said: "It's money that is pollution in the system."
While lobbyists traditionally write bills and ask legislators to sponsor them, Hansen said the practice is getting worse and special interests, not legislators, appear to be taking the lead on promoting bills in committees. . . .
Same bill, new day
In the March 3rd continuation of the hearing on the same bill, we see an example of a legislator who's perfectly comfortable with yanking standard-setting from an agency's technical and scientific staff and turning into over to the lobbyist-led lawmakers.
In response to testimony, Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, went on a rant against the watershed experts sitting across from him, who had testified earlier. While he claimed at the start it would be “respectful” it turned out to just be threatening:
I was offended by the arrogance of the bureaucrats that testified here today in saying that we weren’t qualified to make decisions.
You wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the Legislature. Or your funding, your pensions, or your planning, your operations. We gave you rule-making authority, of which many of us regret. And the reason we’re here today, and we have some of these bills, is because of this arrogance. And instead of standing between the EPA and the farmer, and the businessman, and the miner, and the power companies, what you people, it seems like, are doing is worshiping the shrine of the EPA, and saying ‘There’s nothing we can do.’ It’s just offensive.
Like Rep. Persell, Kayser takes exception to Cornish's grandstanding:
Contrary to what Rep. Cornish believes, part-time elected legislators that may or may not have any idea of what phosphorus even is are most certainly not more qualified than the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to regulate pollution. Also contrary to what Cornish believes, the primary directive of the MPCA and the watershed groups is to combat pollution, not combat the Environmental Protection Agency.
But with the help of folks like Cornish, settled in the mould of his heavily thickened comfort with all this, the regulated and their paid lobbyists can set those standards.
That, dear readers, is regulatory capture at its most pure.
What won't be quite so pure is the water we drink and play in.
Rarely has a Minnesota House committee hearing come to such a colorful close as it did on Tuesday. After listening to back-and-forth testimony on legislation that would require legislative approval of new water-protection standards for Minnesota lakes and rivers, Rep. John Persell accurately summed up a complicated issue with one epic, uniquely Minnesota utterance:
“Bullhockey.”
Noting that many Minnesota cities have done their part to meet new phosphorus-reduction requirements from wastewater treatment plants, Persell, DFL-Bemidji, said this is a fairness issue, that other cities don’t want to do their part.
According to testimony at the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee hearing, the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities played a key role in writing the legislation. Phosphorus is a pollutant that spurs algae growth and can turn sky-blue water into pea-soup green. Currently, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) takes the lead in determining water-quality standards and issuing permits for wastewater plants. . . .
H.F. 616 and 617, carried by Rep. Dan Fabian, R-Roseau, calls for legislative signoff on new water-quality standards, which are essentially a goal set for how much of a pollutant a water body can handle and remain healthy. His second bill would require additional scientific and cost reviews of MPCA protections.
Legislation has also been introduced in the House and Senate to prevent enforcement of the state’s longtime standard for sulfate. This pollutant is linked to mining and wastewater discharge and can harm natural stands of wild rice. Controversy over the state’s sulfate standard has been swirling for several years as its scientific footing undergoes review. Enforcing the standard will add to the price tag of proposed Iron Range mining projects and will be costly for current operations to adhere to.
Industry and special interests have lent these pieces of legislation broad support. Legislators from mining areas, as well as outstate districts with small sewage plants in need of updates, are also pushing this. And that’s the problem. Water protection isn’t merely an economic development issue.
But giving veto power to legislators over new safeguards would boil the debate down to that — a result that would not serve Minnesotans and future generations well. ...
Read the rest at the Star Tribune.
Photo: Representative Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul).
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All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
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