Water ethic: fail? #WaterWednesday

In later August of this year, at the urging of WaterLegacy, I submitted comments to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) on their updated impaired waters list and Total Maximum Daily Load schedule. As WaterLegacy noted in their alert:

"the MPCA also said that the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) studies to start limiting pollution and reducing contamination in these impaired waters need not be completed until 2029!

"The MPCA still has not restarted the mercury TMDL study of the St. Louis River that the Agency derailed in 2013.

"Finally, the MPCA has refused to list any wild rice waters impaired due to sulfate pollution. Despite commitments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 2012, the Agency has never listed even one Minnesota wild rice impaired water!"

St. Louis River at Jay Cooke State Park

Photo by J. Harrington

Since Minnesota's Governor, Mark Dayton, has made this a Year of Water Action, I had hopes that my comments, along with those of others who care about Minnesota's water quality and public health and environmental justice, might do some good. I guess some of the staff at the MPCA may not have received the memo about Water Action legacy. I'm going to quote the entire body of the message I finally received in response to my comments.

"Thank you for your recent message regarding the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) draft 2016 impaired waters list, and for sharing your concerns about mercury contamination in fish, and sulfate impacts on wild rice in Minnesota. 

"Under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, states submit lists of impaired waters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) every two years for review and approval. Following the close of MPCA’s public comment period, the state will submit a final 2016 impaired waters list to U.S. EPA. U.S. EPA will take your concerns into consideration as it reviews MPCA’s final impaired waters list. Thank you for your interest in protecting the quality of Minnesota waters." (emphasis added)

St Louis River at Duluth Harbor

Photo by J. Harrington

My understanding of an ethic is that it goes beyond laws and regulations and motivates those who hold it to do what's called for above and beyond minimum legal requirements. At least that's what I believe caring is supposed to be all about. My reading of the MPCA response above is that the agency is "passing the buck" to EPA (you know, that same federal agency that "protected" the water supply of the citizens of Flint, MI). Given EPA's "emergency protection," MPCA's deferral to EPA is not what I would hope for or expect from an agency that should be setting an example in how to live up to the Governor's statement “It is time now to take action, as individuals and as a state, to leave a legacy of clean, safe, affordable water for ourselves, and for future generations of Minnesotans.” Mercury and sulfate impaired waters that won't be improved for decades even after they exist as known problems isn't the kind of legacy I'd want for future generations.

Dear Mr. Fanelli,

By Charles Bernstein

I saw your picture

in the 79th street

station. You said

you’d be interested

in any comments I

might have on the

condition of the

station Mr. Fanelli,

there is a lot of

debris in the 79th street

station that makes it

unpleasant to wait in

for more than a few

minutes. The station

could use a paint

job and maybe

new speakers so you

could understand

the delay announcements

that are always being

broadcast. Mr.

Fanelli—there are

a lot of people sleeping

in the 79th street station

& it makes me sad

to think they have no

home to go to. Mr.

Fanelli, do you think

you could find a more

comfortable place for them

to rest? It’s pretty noisy

in the subway, especially

all those express trains

hurtling through every

few minutes, anyway when the

trains are in service.

I have to admit, Mr. Fanelli, I

think the 79th street station’s

in pretty bad shape

& sometimes at night

as I toss in my bed

I think the world’s

not doing too good

either, & I

wonder what’s going

to happen, where we’re

headed, if we’re

headed anywhere, if

we even have heads. Mr.

Fanelli, do you think if

we could just start

with the 79th street

station & do what

we could with that

then maybe we could,

you know, I guess, move

on from there? Mr.

Fanelli, when I saw your

picture & the sign

asking for suggestions

I thought, if

you really wanted to

get to the bottom

of what’s wrong then

maybe it was my job

to write to you: Maybe

you’ve never been inside

the 79th street station

because you’re so busy

managing the 72nd street

& 66th street stations,

maybe you don’t know

the problems we have

at 79th—I mean the

dirt & frequent

delays & the feeling of

total misery that

pervades the place. Mr.

Fanelli, are you reading

this far in the letter

or do you get so

many letters every day

that you don’t have

time to give each

one the close attention

it desires? Or am I

the only person who’s

taken up your invitation

to get in touch &

you just don’t have enough

experience to know how to

respond? I’m sorry

I can’t get your attention

Mr. Fanelli because I really

believe if you ask

for comments then you

ought to be willing

to act on them—even

if ought is too

big a word to throw

around at this point.

Mr. Fanelli

I hope you won’t

think I’m rude

if I ask you a

personal question. Do

you get out of the

office much?

Do you go to the movies

or do you prefer

sports—or maybe

quiet evenings at a

local restaurant? Do

you read much, Mr. Fanelli?

I don’t mean just

Gibbons and like

that, but philosophy—

have you read much

Hanna Arendt or

do you prefer

a more ideological

perspective?

I think if I understood

where you are coming from,

Mr. Fanelli, I could

write to you more cogently,

more persuasively. Mr.

Fanelli, do you get out

of the city at all—I

mean like up to Bear

Mountain or out to

Montauk? I mean do you

notice how unpleasant

the air is in the 79th

street station—that we

could use some cooling

or air-filtering system

down there? Mr.

Fanelli, do you think

it’s possible we

could get together

and talk about

these things in

person? There are

a few other points

I’d like to go over

with you if I could

get the chance. Things

I’d like to talk to

you about but that

I’d be reluctant to

put down on paper.

Mr. Fanelli, I haven’t

been feeling very good

lately and I thought

meeting with you face

to face might change

my mood, might put

me into a new frame

of mind. Maybe we

could have lunch?

Or maybe after work?

Think about it, Mr.

Fanelli.

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