While the Lessard Outdoor Heritage Council has generated considerable publicity with its recommendations for spending approximately $69 million this year in habitat funding from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment approved by Minnesota voters last November, the Clean Water Council has been toiling in relative obscurity. But this panel could have decisive impact on how $100 million in clean water funding from the Amendment is spent annually. The Council, though, is not analogous to the Lessard panel. At Conservation Minnesota’s site tracking the Amendment’s implementation, Clean Wate Council member Sarah Strommen explains the similarities and differences.

It was like the first day of school at the second Clean Water Council (CWC) meeting on Monday. But that wasn’t a bad thing. (more…)

For all the growing pains the LCCMR experienced in the past year, the notion of creating committees that are a hybrid of citizens and elected representatives to address environmental issues has expanded to the newly formed Clean Water Council (CWC). (more…)