An important bill to block a proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was recently approved by the House of Representatives with bi-partisan support. EPA’s 88-page proposal is widely considered one of the biggest federal power grabs ever.
The adverse economic and social impacts of this proposal on northern Minnesota citizens, businesses and communities would be enormous. The bill (H.R. 5078) gives the agency an opportunity to restart the process, and would require federal consultation with state and local officials.
Rep. Rick Nolan opposed this common sense bill. The other two out-state Democrats (Peterson and Walz) voted for the bill. In addition, a state water rights statute approved by the Minnesota legislature in 1995 was authored by prominent northern Minnesota Democrats, including Irv Anderson, Bob Lessard, Doug Johnson, and Tom Bakk.
This issue is legally and technically complicated, but politically simple: Does Washington know best or do local people know best? As former President Dwight Eisenhower said: “The principal responsibility for protecting the quality of our waters must be exercised where it naturally reposes–at the local level.”
Don Parmeter
National Water & Conservation Alliance
St. Paul
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