Your recent Minnesota Blog Cabin article “Is it possible to waste water in Minnesota?” by Tom Johnson was especially intriguing considering how our waterways are a huge part of how we enjoy summers in Minnesota.
This summer I had the amazing opportunity to canoe down the Cannon River in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. While I paddled and looked out at the open water, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of sorrow. I kept asking myself, will this river always look this pristine and natural? As bald eagles soared overhead and painted turtles sunbathed on the rocks along the shore, I dreamed of bringing my own someday family to a Minnesotan river as beautiful as this one.
According to Environment Minnesota’s Summer Fun Index, 71 state parks in Minnesota have waterways. This means that there are 71 different opportunities for families to canoe, paddle and enjoy the breathtaking outdoors in our very own state. This summer over 8.7 million people took that opportunity to visit those state parks waters.
Despite how popular our waterways are, a loophole in the Clean Water Act has left 51 percent of Minnesota’s streams vulnerable to pollution, including many that feed into and clean White Bear Lake.
I’m thankful the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed closing this loophole, and I’m incredibly disappointed that Congress appears intent on stopping it, especially Rep. Tim Walz. Kudos to our Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Rick Nolan for standing up against these dangerous attacks on clean water.
— Madeline Carter, Environment Minnesota
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Many would disagree
This has been a large point of contention for many people. Many people in the ag industry would disagree with the EPA’s proposal because it is overreaching. I agree there should be more oversight than there is but the current proposal has been called overreaching by many people and groups including the corn growers assn., cattle industry, and pork industry.
Do you
think that road ditches, all drainage ditches, and seasonally wet areas in fields should be regulated like the EPA would like to? That is what the EPA wants to do. Why would you support that?