Water Quality Challenges Facing Minnesota and the Great Lakes
"It's our Water... Gov. Mark Dayton, January, 2015”
Excerpts from Peter Gove's talk, April 8, 2015
What do potatoes, Iowa and snowballs have to do with water quality in Minnesota? Water activist Peter
Gove explained those and a host of other issues affecting Minnesota's surface and groundwater at our
April meeting. He borrowed his title from a quote from MN Governor Mark Dayton who in midJanuary said, "It may be your land, but it's our water." Below are extensive excerpts from his talk.
Background
...I am neither a hydrologist, engineer or have a scientific degree. I am a former state and federal
official. I had the privilege of managing the Pollution Control Agency, but that was nearly 40
years ago....throughout my career in the public sector with the State of Minnesota, US Senate
staff and Department of the Interior, and working thereafter for 30 years in the computing and
medical technology sectors for two great MN global companies, I have had an interest as a
citizen in conservation and resource protection with a focus on rivers and lakes, and the close
connection of water policy with land stewardship....
I am the principal founder and former board chair of Friends of the Mississippi River. For now
22 years, FMR has been the #1 citizens advocacy group for the Mississippi and its watershed. In
2007, I was part of a small board group who repositioned the mission of perhaps the oldest
volunteer organizations in MN/WI, the St. Croix River Association, to focus on water, land and
invasive species advocacy throughout the 7500 sq. mile St. Croix watershed....
I serve on the Conservation Minnesota Board of Advisors, just completed a term as chair of the
Trust for Public Land’s Minnesota Advisory Board and chair the National Parks Conservation
Association’s Upper Midwest council. And, was appointed in 2012 by Gov. Dayton to represent
Minnesota on the board of trustees of the Great Lakes Protection Fund. So that is the background
I bring this evening....
Minnesota's Surface and Groundwater Resources
Before suggesting a list of water quality and supply challenges to consider today and in the years
ahead, let’s quickly review the facts about Minnesota’s abundant surface and groundwater
resources, including our 150 miles of shoreline on the greatest of the Great Lakes:
11,842 lakes of more than 10 acres
69,200 miles of rivers and streams
10.6 million acres of wetlands (est. 18.6 M acres in 1850)
The source of the Mississippi River that drains 40% of this country. 680 of its
2320-mile
course are in Minnesota

Close to 100 federal, state and local river/lake based parks including Voyageurs
National
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


Park, the largest water-based park in the National Park system; the St. Croix National
Scenic Riverway, one of the original designated WSRivers; the only designated national
river in the National Park System; 8 great river parks on the North Shore; and a metro
parks system all consistently ranked the number #1 park system in the US

MN shares with Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario, the largest freshwater lake in
the
world by surface volume and 3rd largest in volume (following Baikal in Siberia and
Tanganyika in East Africa). Lake Superior holds 10% of the world’s fresh water.

And, very importantly but perhaps under-appreciated, abundant but not
inexhaustible
groundwater resources, given the Jordan and Prairie du Chien and other aquifers....
We are blessed in Minnesota and the Northwoods region with abundant surface
and groundwater
resources, and, until the last decade, fairly predictable rain and snowfall providing water for
irrigation,
augmenting lake levels and recharging groundwater aquifers.
Water management, policy and politics are based on surface watersheds and also ground
watersheds. A watershed map of Minnesota lists 10 basins or watersheds but really there are
four:

the Mississippi watershed including its St. Croix and Minnesota River tributaries
(two
quite different river landscapes)

the Lake Superior watershed including the St. Louis River

the Rainy River watershed that includes – very importantly - the BWCA and
VNPA

the Red River of the North flowing into Canada. All of Minnesota’s 11,000+
lakes
and 69K miles of rivers exist in the context of a watershed. And, what happens in the
watershed unlike Las Vegas - does not stay in the watershed, but impacts downstream users....
History of Regulating Water Quality and Conservation Efforts
Regulation of water quality, unlike water law or water appropriation rules, is fairly new in
this country.
It was during the Nixon Administration that the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy
Act and Endangered Species Act were passed and the EPA established. These federal statutes
resulted from the environmental abuses of the late 1960’s, and public responses like Earth Day,
created in April 1970 by our Wisconsin neighbor, the late, and great Gov. and Sen. Gaylord
Nelson.
In Minnesota, the Lake Minnetonka Watershed District was established in 1967 to regulate
the use of the lake and to develop a comprehensive plan to eliminate pollution. The Met Council
was also created in 1967 and acquired authority over metro wastewater treatment a few years
later. In 1968, the St. Croix River received federal protection. The Pollution Control Agency
was established in 1969 as a state agency to regulate water, air and solid waste. The PCA
enabling legislation also established a citizens board, currently under attack at the Legislature.
In the 1970’s came a significant number of state statutes to protect water and other
resources including the Environmental Rights Act, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Critical Areas
Act, Power Plant Siting Act, the first state bonding bill to fund wastewater treatment facilities,
the MN Environmental Policy Act that established MN’s system for environmental impact
statements and created the MN Environmental Quality Council. Also the Lower St. Croix River
Act, Voyageurs National Park companion legislation, Environmental Education Act and
establishment of the MN Energy Agency.
The other historical note is the support by the Perpich Administration to separate storm
water from wastewater sewer systems in the metro area in the early 80’s, solving for this area
- one of the first in the country to do so - the significant combined sewer overflow or CSO
challenge - an ongoing issue to this day in many major metro areas around the US.
Consequently, Minnesota has been a conservation leader with wide-ranging water
and wastewater management practices, with one glaring sector as an exception, and, the good
work over many years of watershed districts including the Lake Minnetonka Watershed District.
In addition, we are fortunate to have two state dedicated funds to protect and restore our
surface and
groundwater resources in addition to state appropriations and bonding programs –
the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, the recipient of about half of the net
proceeds from the MN Lottery for the past 25 years - representing nearly a billion dollars. And,
the Clean Water Land Legacy Amendment supported during the 2008 recession by 56% of the
voters, outpolling President-elect Obama, and dedicating over $5B for 25 years for water,
habitat, park and arts/history projects....
A final point. Elections matter, including on environmental policy, finance and leadership.
Last November, the Republican Party gained control of the US Senate including key
committee chairmanships. In Minnesota, while Governor Dayton and Senator Franken were
reelected, control of the Minnesota House switched from the DFL to Republican Party with a
pickup of 11 seats, mostly in outstate Minnesota. That change in control has given rise to what
has been labeled the R-R-R coalition – for Republican, Range and Rural. This voting bloc in the
MN House, and to some extent in the DFL-controlled Senate, has been the source of several
troublesome challenges to MN’s environmental legacy, statutes and executive branch
authority....
Ten Current Issues: Policy, Regulation, Funding and Politics
First, Governor Dayton is in legacy mode, tired of hearing about the
declining pheasant
population and made a paradigm-shifting announcement to protect "our water" on
January 16.
Our re-elected Governor has made a number of major proposals to this Legislature as he
begins his second and last term....and in mid-January, an unexpected and potentially
transforming proposal to require 50-foot buffers along many lakes and rivers to protect the
state’s waterways from agricultural runoff– primarily phosphorus, nitrogen and nitrates....
It is a real game changer in focusing attention on what is essentially a low tech and cost
solution to ag. runoff – 50ft buffers. The Governor’s best quote in advocating for this proposal
was “It may be your land, but it’s our water.”
Second, so-called point sources of water pollution are essentially under
control. Nonpoint
is the challenge and that begins and ends with farming practices.
When I was appointed to lead the MPCA in May 1975, the agency’s water pollution
control priorities were point sources, i.e., municipal and industrial discharges of organic and
inorganic materials, and failed septic tanks. Pipes or point sources were the appropriate focus, as
there were typically just primary treatment systems and thousands of so-called straight pipes
and failed septic systems. Commonplace today - tertiary treatment - was almost unheard of.
The same for industrial point sources from the paper, steel, animal processing, electrical power
and other industries....
What is called nonpoint pollution, or impairment from diffuse sources was barely on the
PCA’s radar. Nonpoint sources include contributions from urban yard and animal waste, oil
buildup on parking lots and, then as now, nutrient runoff from agriculture. In that era, nonpoint
control was a low priority, in part because of the challenge of industrial and municipal
wastewater control.
And, as important today as when the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, the only sector
exempted from water quality regulation was agriculture. In the intervening four decades, water
pollution priorities have increasingly focused on nonpoint sources, as point sources with few
exemptions, are in compliance with federal or state permits. There are of course exceptions in the
municipal and industrial water treatment sector.
Consequently, nonpoint impairment, almost all from agricultural practices is the remaining
large, untreated and unregulated source of impairment of our wetlands, rivers and lakes.
Third, Wilbur Mills’ famous quote is at the core of our agricultural runoff problem,
plus some disinformation and an abundance of marketing and promotion.
Who remembers the late, able but colorful chair of the House Ways and Means
Committee, Wilbur Mills from Arkansas?...In the federal tax code world he dominated for many
years, Mills is best remembered for his oft-quoted portrayal of those who appeared before his
committee saying in effect, “Don't tax him, don’t tax me, tax that man behind the tree.”
That pretty much sums up the challenge we face in making meaningful progress in dealing
with nonpoint source water pollution that primarily results from untreated runoff from
agricultural practices, whether fertilizers, herbicides or manure.
It's a difficult battle – no regulatory mandate at the federal or state level except for the
largest feedlots, little enforcement by local governments of existing county buffer rules, too
much tile drainage, thousands of acres previously in conservation reserve programs converted to
row crops given high commodity prices, and apropos to Wilbur Mills, a constant theme from
the agricultural community that it’s not them that is causing nutrients leading to water
quality impairments, algae blooms, higher water treatment costs and the like.
The industry’s position is a mixture of overstating urban nonpoint discharges, a bit of
arrogance, large marketing budgets by commodity groups, emotional appeals that "farmers were
the first conservationists," and the power of the farm lobby....
Four, the previously mentioned Republican, Range, Rural coalition plus a whiff of
anti-science, is behind several anti-conservation and environmental protection bills
this session, including an attack on the PCA citizens board prompted by the Riverview
Farms environmental review.
I earlier mentioned there are pressures in the MN Legislature to rollback water
quality protections and limit the authority of the PCA citizens board and MPCA/DNR powers
to promulgate regulations based on scientific evidence or best available treatment technology.
Let me list the topics of several bills in this regard: requiring legislative approval of all
future water quality standards; additional and duplicative peer review of water quality
standards; groundwater protection rollbacks; legislative review over state rulemaking processes;
and, of particular concern to me, weakening the duties of the MPCA citizens board given
the audacity of the board to vote for a first level environmental review of the proposed
Riverview Farms extensive dairy expansion near Morris, MN, given concerns about nitrate
pollution and groundwater usage.
Five, why is a lawsuit expected to be filed by the City of Des Moines important?
One of the implications of water impairment from ag. runoff is downstream users face
increased water
treatment costs. For decades municipal and industrial water users have seen their treatment costs
increase for drinking water, food processing and other industrial uses to remove or neutralize
phosphorus or nitrogen, primarily a result of unregulated agricultural practices.
A threatened lawsuit filed by the City of Des Moines Water Works against three NW
Iowa counties that manage drainage districts with high concentration of nitrates that flow into
the Raccoon River - Des Moines’ water supply - could signal a new dynamic in accountability
from agriculture. To quote the Water Board’s chair, “This is the only way that we see that we
can engage the government, especially the State of Iowa, in a serious discussion about
regulating those pollutants that are dumped into our source water.”
Six, while groundwater resources in MN are generally abundant, don't tell that to
folks around White Bear Lake. Also, McDonald’s demand for French fries represents
a crucial groundwater and runoff challenge in central MN. And, groundwater
contamination
from nitrates in the Adrian, MN municipal wells is another indicator of groundwater
challenges.
As mentioned in my earlier accounting of Minnesota’s abundant surface water resources, we
are blessed
with immense groundwater resources. Both the Jordan and Prairie du Chien formations hold
enormous
amounts of high quality groundwater requiring little treatment as drinking water. Only far SW
Minnesota is compromised by limited groundwater....
A thorough discussion of groundwater could be the topic of a single presentation but the
key points
in my mind can be illustrated by three recent situations:
First, the White Bear Lake 2013 lawsuit against the MN DNR, now settled, demonstrates that
a combination of increasingly erratic precipitation plus essentially unregulated pumping
of groundwater in a small watershed for housing development and municipal water wells, can
lead to substantially lower lake levels. There are no easy or cheap solutions to this situation in an
era of warming temperatures and less predictable rain and snowfall that impacts
groundwater recharge. The White Bear Lake case has been a wakeup call for policy makers on
groundwater policy.
Second, recent publicity about huge amounts of forest acres in north central MN converted
to potato farming, requiring intense applications of fertilizer with resulting increased runoff to
the Mississippi River watershed, and, large amounts of groundwater required to support
intensive potato farming, is a disturbing trend for the sand plains of central Minnesota and NW
Wisconsin. I recommend the Star Tribune series by Josephine Marcotty this past February on
the Fargo, ND based RD Offutt company, the nation’s largest potato grower. Fortunately the
DNR Commissioner intervened and will not grant additional large capacity groundwater well
permits in this area until further environmental review occurs of the impacts of intense potato
cultivation on water appropriation and quality.
Third, the recent report of nitrate pollution of municipal wells in Adrian and other
communities is yet
another example of the consequences of intense row crop agriculture to groundwater drinking
water supplies.
Seven, protecting wild rice habitat and water quality is at the heart of the sulfide
mining debate in northern MN. The location of the Laurentian divide is important
in this regard. American Rivers earlier this week named the St. Louis River in
the Lake Superior watershed in its annual most endangered rivers list given these
concerns.
...Minnesota has extensive experience with mining of iron ore and taconite and dealing with the
water and air impacts of this important and long-standing industry. The PCA and DNR have
regulated taconite plants for nearly 50 years. The low point was the Reserve Mining Case in the
mid 1970’s, a battle I remember well as a Governor’s staff member and later MPCA director.
But mining, whether open pit or underground, of materials that contain copper, nickel and
other trace metals is something entirely different, as the byproduct of mining and processing of
this ore is toxic for perhaps hundreds of years. So-called sulfide mining is a topic as
important, complicated and political as ag. runoff or groundwater contamination for our children
and grandchildren.
There has been considerable recent discussion on sulfide mining including the MPCA’s
longstanding
and highly studied standard to protect sensitive waters for native wild rice from contamination
from mining. The PCA, with the Governor’s support, recently proposed a new and somewhat
controversial approach to enforcing its wild rice standard.
As the issue of possible copper-nickel unfolds, a bit of northern Minnesota geography
is important. Located four miles north of Virginia MN on Highway 53/169 is the Laurentian
Divide rest stop and trailhead. Streams on the north side of this divide flow to
the Rainy River then to Hudson Bay via Canada. On the south side, streams flow south to Lake
Superior and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, or, to
the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. The location of this divide is important to the
proposed sulfide mining sites, as water flows either north to and through the protected and much
loved BWCA wilderness, then via the Rainy River to Voyageurs National Park and into Canada,
or, alternatively south via the St. Louis River to Lake Superior
The first copper nickel proposal is the North Met/Polymet site owned by a Vancouver,
Canadian company with a controversial Swiss Investor, Glencore. Its proposed mine is located
within the St. Louis River/Lake Superior watershed. The second proposal is Twin Metals, owned
by Antofagasta plc of Santiago, Chile, and located within the BWCA/Rainy River/VNPA
watershed. Much more is known about the Polymet proposal, given the extensive draft EIS
process, but Twin Metals proposed mine is in a much more pristine water area, including the
essentially untouched and federally protected BWCA and Voyageurs NP, located along the
border with Canada.
Given the potential impacts to the St. Louis River, and ultimately Lake Superior, from
adverse water quality impacts from the Polymet project, the American Rivers organization
earlier this week named the St. Louis River one of the 10 most threatened US rivers in their
annual river threat list.
The decision to approve one or both of these copper nickel mines is a generational one
for Minnesota leaders as the waste ore will need to be treated and contained for perhaps hundreds
of years. The so-called finance assurance plan is a critical component in this discussion. This is
an all but existential debate for elected officials, state and federal policy makers, citizens, and
perhaps the courts, regarding mining, economic development, water quality and recreation in the
next decades in northern MN. Stay tuned.
Eight, Great Lakes Water Wars is a book title and appropriate to the Gitche Gumee.
A thorough discussion of Lake Superior and Great Lakes water quality issues is a subject
unto itself. Topics include potential water diversion from the Great Lakes to other watersheds,
the first instance being a proposal by the city of Waukesha WI; plus the spread of invasive
species from ballast tank discharges of Great Lakes so-called ‘salties’; the invasive carp threat
from the Chicago ship canal; microbead contamination; and potential petroleum spills on the
Great Lakes.
Nine, what does loss of fishing and recreational opportunities on the Illinois River
have to do with Minnesota?
I will cheat a bit here to add a recreation, fishing and boating item to this water list: In this
case the real
and potentially devastating threat to MN waters of the northern march of several species of
invasive Asian carp imported in the 1970’s to help southern US farmers to control weed
and parasite growth in aquatic farms. Asian carp eventually managed to get into
the Mississippi River, establish breeding populations and migrated north.
Asian carp are slowly making their way up the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and
have been found as far north as the Twin Cities. They are much more voracious and destructive
of native fish habitat than common carp, that is considered in the U.S. a nuisance fish but does
not do much harm to lakes and rivers.
When established in breeding populations the four invasive carp species – bighead, black, grass
and
silver – can take over a waterway, all but eliminate native species and in the case of silver
carp, jump out
of the water when disturbed by boat motors and represent a threat to boaters. If you have not
seen videos from the Illinois River of jumping carp injuring boaters, just go to UTube. If you are
a boater or fisherperson, these video clips will get your attention.
The Mississippi River lock and dam system is critical to slowing these destructive fish.
Congress last year passed legislation to direct the Corps of Engineers to close the upper St.
Anthony Lock this June to reduce the threat of these species moving up
the Mississippi watershed including to that sacred place for walleye fishing, Mille Lacs.
The University of Minnesota is playing an important role in research on how to slow down these
invaders but ultimately a biological solution is required. In this region, only single fish have been
caught so far. The St. Croix River is particularly at risk north of Prescott. And, more stringent
baitfish regulations are also part of the solution. See the Stop Carp Coalition, MN DNR
or University of Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species web sites for more information.
And, tenth and last, what does a snowball on the floor of the US Senate have to
do with Minnesota and why was Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
in St. Paul last evening?
Many of you may have seen the recent stunt on the floor of the U.S. Senate by the chairman of
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. He
used a snowball as a prop to continue his anti-science campaign. More concerning is that this
Senator, with the Republicans in control of the Senate, chairs the Committee with jurisdiction
over the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency.
It's a dangerous time for the EPA on many fronts including its proposed Clean Water Rule
that brought EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to St. Paul this week in a water policy
forum sponsored by Friends of the Mississippi River. The Clean Water rule is an attempt by EPA
to clarify which waters they have jurisdiction over, given several Supreme Court cases
"mudding" EPA’s water jurisdiction. It's an important rule making process but fraught with many
hurdles given the current politics in the Congress and unfortunate anti-environmental sentiment
of many now in leadership positions in the U.S. House and Senate.
That’s my list of water challenges. Thanks for your attention this evening. Remember, “Its
our water!”