We Minnesotans are proud of the Boundary Waters – it’s a world-renowned place where I, like many of us, have made great memories while establishing core environmental values and enjoying Minnesota’s natural beauty.

When future generations visit the Boundary Waters, let’s make sure they can get drinking water from the lakes, and eat the fish they catch, and swim safely in the water – just like we do. (more...)

Give to the Max Countdown: 8 days to go!

We Minnesotans sure love to fish: Dropping a line in our favorite lake, river or stream is part of our way of life.

But a whopping 40% of our state’s lakes and rivers are seriously polluted – contaminating the fish, making them harmful to our health.

So let’s do something about it. (more…)

Since being signed into law on Oct. 18, 1972, the federal Clean Water Act has helped Minnesota and the rest of our nation limit and clean up pollution in our lakes, rivers and streams.

(For an easy-to-understand summary of the landmark Clean Water Act and how it affects Minnesota, see Minnesota’s impaired waters 101, written by Friends of the Mississippi River, an MEP member organization.)

Unfortunately, many leaders in Minnesota proved unfriendly to our water during the past legislative session.* (more…)

[Check out this previous post to hear Steve discuss these issues on AM950 Radio.]

Minnesotans expect our leaders to do more to clean up and restore our lakes, rivers and streams – Minnesota voters passed the Legacy Amendment in 2008 to do just that! But is that money being used effectively?

Our state has a long way to go in cleaning up our water, and preventing future pollution.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reports that about 40% of Minnesota’s lakes and streams that they’ve tested are categorized as polluted. That means these waters don’t meet basic health standards for swimming or fishing – and definitely not drinking. What’s even more disturbing is that most of our lakes and rivers have yet to be tested! There is clearly more work that needs to be done to test these lakes to figure out where important clean-up work is most needed. (more…)

Steve Morse joined radio host Nancy Nelson Tuesday, Oct. 4, on AM950 to discuss Legacy Amendment funds for cleaning up our water, and how water pollution is tied to agriculture.

Listen to their conversation by clicking play below.

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(more…)

From Congresswoman Betty McCollum

On September 23, House Republicans passed a destructive bill called the TRAIN Act (H.R. 2401).  This legislation institutes needless bureaucratic delays and stall tactics to permanently weaken EPA’s ability to uphold the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. The bill also orders EPA to indefinitely delay its rules to address cross-state air pollution and mercury emissions from power plants.  (more…)

A three-hour drive separates the rolling hills of Minnesota’s Douglas County from the front steps of the Bell Museum of Natural History. But a year after the controversy over Troubled Waters—the Bell’s Emmy award-winning film on farmland pollution in the Mississippi River basin—brought words like “dead zone,” hypoxia” and “nitrogen fertilizer” to the attention of the general public, what’s happening in places like west-central Minnesota provides an insight into what the future holds for the health of the entire watershed all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)

So what happened this past legislative session? Here’s our brief overview:

State Budget

Defending traditional sources of funding for our Great Outdoors was a significant part of MEP’s work at the Capitol this year. (more…)

What’s a sure sign that legislators are not carrying out the wishes of the general public? Answer: when their actions have to be carried out in secret, behind closed doors, in the dark of night. That’s literally what happened Tuesday night-Wednesday morning when the Minnesota Legislature passed the Environment Finance Bill. As part of the budget negotiations to end the government shutdown, Republican leaders insisted that language be included in the finance bill which weakens environmental standards for factory farms. The Land Stewardship Project and our allies have opposed this proposal in the past and it failed to pass the normal legislative committee process this year and last year due to strong public opposition. So why not sneak it through when the public is locked out of the process? (more…)

The new compromise environment budget bill is an improvement over the budget-gutting bill originally put forth by the legislature and later vetoed by the governor, but even in this improved bill, our concerns remain:

Disproportionate cuts:

Although we are grateful that overall state general fund spending has increased for our Great Outdoors compared to the legislature’s proposals, funding to protect our lakes, rivers, streams, habitat and parks is still severely cut. (more…)