Tired of seeing red?

The areas in red indicated rivers and lakes that have been classified as "impaired." These waters don't meet the standards necessary to support the uses, such as swimming, designated for them. About 40% of Minnesota's waters fail to meet required standards, and the amount of red (not counting Lake Superior) generally increases from north to south and east to west.

impaired waters, 2018 draft

Western and southern Minnesota are where agricultural land use predominates. Public waters in Minnesota are required, as of the beginning of next month, to have a 50 foot buffer (or alternative conservation measures) to reduce the amount of pollutants getting into our public waters from farm fields. The map below shows, in shades of blue, the estimated percent of parcels in each county meeting buffer requirements. Lighter shades denote lower/lesser levels of compliance. The degree of blue is sort of the inverse of the amount of red. The press release noted that the total compliance is estimated at 94%. Unfortunately, many of those counties where agriculture predominates are also those with the lowest percentage compliance.

estimated compliance with buffer requirements

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has proposed a revised water quality standard for wild rice waters. Public comments can be submitted until November 22 and public hearings start next week. (If you're an activist advocate for water quality and/or wild rice, you're entitled to wonder if there's a conspiracy, since hearings for Enbridge's proposed "Line 3" pipeline are going on now.) The proposed standard, if adopted, will be more complex and labor intensive to establish for each wild rice water.

Since the Agency is already under review by the US Environmental Protection Agency because

"The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the EPA agreed in 2013 that Minnesota had a significant problem with expired and out - of - date NPDES permits that failed to control pertinent parameters. Despite a formal Metallic Mining Joint Priority Agreement with EPA, MPCA has made virtually no progress in addressing the backlog of out - of - date mining permits that provide inadequate control of pollutants."

we're hesitant to assume the Agency would have the staff and other resources needed to implement an more complex version of a standard that's been on the books for years, but wasn't enforced until recently. The intent of federal legislation enacted in 1972, with a Minnesota Congressman as a chief author, was that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts would cease by 1985. Forty-five years after enactment, more than three decades after the 1985 deadline, are we still moving backwards? Some of us, but, we hope, far from the majority, wonder if this philosophy means we should post speed limits, but eliminate all traffic cops, and then see what happens. Maybe we can turn more of northeast Minnesota's waters red on the maps. Is that what we really want?

Let Muddy Water Sit and It Grows Clear

Ted Mathys

It’s clear when, in membranous
              predawn blue
I enter pines, mind on
              embryo in amnion,
my tracks preceded
              by those of the dog,
his by a doe’s, hers by six
              hours of snow, it’s clear then
the distance between
              my affections and ability
to touch their sinuosity
              is itself a felt silence
called sun. Sun rises
              without provocation
over a frozen stream that frustrates
              reflection, but will
by the time a pulse is palpable,
              have thawed and grown
clear again, permitting me to see
              a tree surface, distort, flow.

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