What has Minnesota Pollution Control got against trout streams?

When did the Minnesota legislature, or the Walz administration, put the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency [MnPCA] in charge of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries?  MnPCA's proposed water quality standards revisions for what are now and should remain designated as "trout streams" propose to substitute "cold water fisheries" as in:

"Class 2A4 designation of cold water communities has in the past relied almost solely on the DNR list of designated trout waters in Minn. R. 6264.0050. With the development and use of improved tools to assess the condition of Minnesota’s waters (e.g., indices of biotic integrity, biological criteria) some differences in management goals between the MPCA and DNR in designating cold water systems need to be addressed. A small number of waters in Minn. R. 6264.0050 are not appropriate for the MPCA to manage as cold water and there are some waters not included on the DNR trout waters list that the MPCA should manage as cold water habitat."

a Minnesota North Woods trout stream

Photo by J. Harrington

We are grateful that WaterLegacy provided a "heads up" notice or the innocuous appearing language in MnPCA's web pages might have slipped by us. We've not yet had chance to read in detail the proposed changes nor the Statement of Need and Reasonableness. WaterLegacy has done their usual yeoman-like job and provides this summary on their web page:

Here’s what we understand so far about the MPCA proposed brave new rules:

• No Minnesota waters would be listed as “trout waters.” This term that Minnesotans have understood for decades would be replaced with “cold water habitat.”
• The entire section of rules (ch. 6264) where trout waters are listed so Minnesotans can see which waters are protected as trout waters would be removed. Tributaries to trout waters would no longer be protected.
• “Cold water habitat” would be defined to require a new level of proof that the water supported a healthy population of trout and other cold water biota, proof which may no longer even be possible.
• In fact, when industrial pollution and climate change have affected trout, the MPCA could be required to remove protection for cold water habitat waters.
• The rule would stop automatic listing of trout waters as Class A drinking waters. Under existing rules, all trout waters have to meet a 250 parts per million limit on sulfate, a standard mining industry polluters have tried to remove.
• Finally, looking at the changes proposed by MPCA for actual waters, more than 70 percent of the river miles affected by the changes downgrade the designated classification of waters.

The MPCA will only hold a public hearing in front of an administrative law judge if 25 OR MORE MINNESOTANS ASK FOR A HEARING. The Deadline is Nov. 7, 2019. 

When we accept a term such as cold water habitat, it seems to me that we're contributing in a different way to the degradation of nature. Most of us understand what's meant by "trout stream." When regulatory agencies hide reality behind unnecessary technical changes, that diminishes our understanding of and relationship to our environments. We need both head and heart linkages to our natural environment. To describe the kind of changes proposed to water quality standards:

That’s what University of Washington psychology professor Peter Kahn calls “environmental generational amnesia” — the idea that each generation perceives the environment into which it’s born, no matter how developed, urbanized or polluted, as the norm. And so what each generation comes to think of as “nature” is relative, based on what they’re exposed to. In a new paper, which Kahn co-authored with doctoral student Thea Weiss, in the latest issue of Children, Youth and Environments, they argue that more frequent and meaningful interactions with nature can enhance our connection to — and definition of — the natural world. [full article here]

Please take a look at the proposed changes and consider  being one of the Minnesotans requesting a contested case hearing. The Pollution Control Agency has tried similar legerdemain regarding the Dark River classifications. We noted our dissatisfaction with those changes also. Perhaps it's become a fantasy that government agencies would actually do the jobs they're supposed to, instead of trying to make the world safe for industry.

[RELATED: MPCA rejects U.S. Steel’s Dark River proposal]

Trout

By Kathryn Starbuck

I do my best 

to keep pointlessness 

at bay. But here, 

wet above my 

knees, I let it fly. 

Here, hot and cold, 

fingers thick with 

thinking, I try to 

tie the fly and look 

for the net, loosening 

the philosophical   

knot of why I came 

here today, not yet 

knowing whether 

I’ll free or fry 

the rainbows 

and browns once 

they’re mine.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.