MN floats complicated plan for wild rice rule

[Fish Felon]

Trying to digest this one before taking a stance. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet...


Minnesota floats complicated plan for wild rice rule

By JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY , STAR TRIBUNE
March 24, 2015 - 5:31 PM


Sulfate levels would be developed for each body of water.

State pollution officials Tuesday revealed a complicated new plan to develop individual pollution limits for each vulnerable lake or stream in Minnesota that grows wild rice.

The hurried announcement, which had been scheduled for later this week, came after Gov. Mark Dayton roiled the political waters by saying in an interview that enforcing long-standing but outdated rules for wild rice “could be catastrophic for northeastern Minnesota.”

Minnesota Public Radio aired the interview with Dayton Tuesday morning. He said that forcing the taconite industry to comply with the old rule could be “ill advised” because of the costs.

The state Pollution Control Agency has been working for several years on a new rule to protect wild rice from sulfate, a mineral salt that comes off the Iron Range and from more than 200 industrial plants across the state. It’s a been a highly contentious and politically thorny problem for the Dayton administration.

The current sulfate law, which has been on the books since 1973, has rarely been enforced. But in recent years, Indian tribes, the Environmental Protection Agency, and environmental groups have successfully pressured the state to implement it as required under federal pollution laws. The PCA has paid for millions of dollars in new research to test the validity of the standard, and conducted extensive peer review of the results.

Rather than relying on a single sulfate level for all wild rice waters in the state, the agency wants to calculate a sulfate level for each wild rice water, based on specific conditions at every site.

It’s not clear whether the state would enforce the current standard while the new rule is developed — a process that could take two or more years.

U.S. Steel, the largest taconite operator in Minnesota, and others in the industry have been lobbying to not enforce the rule, saying that it would cost millions of dollars. A bill that would suspend the rule is pending at the legislature.

[cstemig]

Yup, that is one to ponder for awhile. Is the current sulfate levels harmful to anything/anyone else?

If so, then it needs to be cleaned up.

[lanyard]

Soooo...... how can Dayton NOT be on board with this?

There are existing ditch buffer laws not being enforced, so the plan is to expand them, costing millions in productive agriculture?

In both instances, if the bloody bastards stuck the game plan how little controversy we'd have now in so many cases. Let's drop firearms legislation in with this as well.... nothing government seems to like more than passing new laws, not enforcing them, to have to create more laws to make up for not enforcing the first law.....

[get-n-birdy]

Some things to ponder;

1. The American public is gullible and border line ubber retarded.

2. Big ag and businesses come in and make a plan to make money.

3. The government made up of elected officials are human.

4. They like money.

5. They do not like looking like the bad guy to their rich buddies tree hugging, spoiled rotten children. These idealists over compensate for their wealth, that was given to them, and they feel they have little worth. So they make up for it by seemingly doing as much good as they possibly can, preferably in the lime light.

6. Between the deep pockets and politicians, they are going to screw the general public and know this from the very beginning.

7. They pander to the bleeding hearts by passing laws and putting up a good front.

8. Then after all is said and done they slip the general public a roofie and go to town, which was the plan all along.

9. This gets repeated and repeated, over and over again and is redundantly repetitively cyclical and pattern-able.

10. Yet there's no accountability.

[Goldfish]

Soooo...... how can Dayton NOT be on board with this?
.....

Because the farmers aren't democrats, but the union bleeding mine workers are