Clean Up the River Environment has a new clip up on mercury and the proposed Big Stone II coal plant just across the border.

You can learn more at http://www.beyondbigstone2.com/

Clean Water Fund has a new webpage up with information on contamination from the 3M chemicals collectively grouped as PFCs that are polluting Minnesota’s lakes and rivers.  Check out their press release as well.

The efforts to create fair and consistent rules for responsible Great Lakes water use has continued on since Minnesota ratified the Great Lakes Compact in February.  Here’s a quick status update from the other seven Great Lakes states:

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I spent a few hours last week with Paul Wotzka, the former Minnesota Pollution Control Agency hydrologist who has recently filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against the agency. As we sat in his rural southeast Minnesota home near where the Whitewater River empties into the Mississippi, he gave me an informal version of the presentation he would have given to a state House committee on March 23—if his supervisors would have allowed him. Well, here is the presentation that committee missed out on. As you can see, the environmental trend lines Wotzka’s research lays out are troubling, but this Powerpoint isn’t exactly a threat to national security. So why the big fuss? It’s like this: in a climate where little questioning of the corn-bean-feedlot machine is tolerated, some may see these charts, graphs and bullet points as tantamount to treason. That’s because Wotzka’s research shows that planting more and more corn and soybeans in watersheds like the Whitewater is creating significant threats to the ecosystem. The trouble is, a lot of powerful interests are betting on the “more and more corn and beans” horse and don’t want any stumbling blocks tossed onto the track. The future of Paul Wotzka’s career may be in the hands of the courts, but we still have a chance to thank the hydrologist for serving the public’s interest, even when his research perturbs the powerful. An Aug. 11 fundraiser for Wotzka is an opportunity for people to support the kind of solid, publicly-funded science that helps you and me (and our lawmakers) make informed decisions. (more…)

To assist with the legal expenses of Paul Wotzka’s whistleblower lawsuit, there will be a benefit dinner at the Eagle Bluff Nature Center in Lanesboro on August 11 at 5:30 p.m.  Here’s the blurb as sent to me:

 Paul Wotzka was an employee of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) when he was asked by Representative Ken Tschumper to testify at the Minnesota House about results of atrazine monitoring that Wotzka was involved with previously as a hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The MPCA denied his request to testify and a week later Wotzka was put on investigative leave and subsequently fired. Funds raised at this event will help Wotzka cover his legal expenses. The cost is $25 per person, required by August 8. Donations for a silent auction are also welcomed. You can bring them to the dinner or drop them off at Eagle Bluff (please let Eagle Bluff know in advance if possible).

Contact Eagle Bluff Learning Center to make a reservation at 507.467.2437 or 888.800.9558.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) began testing wastewater treatment plants for the presence of PFCs last April.  Turns out that water coming out of the Brainerd treatment plant is way above all the others tested for PFOS, coming in at 1.51 parts per billion - or almost 14 times higher than the Twin Cities.  This is made all the more strange by the fact that they don’t know where the contamination is coming from.  You can see the summary of test results from all the sites in this PDF.

Their news release doesn’t seem to be online as I write this.  In the mean time, here is the MPCA’s PFC page.

Maybe it is just because there is seemingly a story in every newspaper in the state today about Harry Potter (considered perhaps the greenest book ever, btw), but do you think it is a coincidence that this news is released the same day as the last book?  Does that mean Lord Voldemort wins out?

The news has been unsettling me lately.  Mining-related cancers hidden by the Department of Health for a year, the seemingly growing presence of 3M chemicals in drinking water and area fish, and another whistleblower lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) – the first occurring a couple of years ago regarding the aforementioned 3M chemicals and the second regarding high levels of the pesticide Atrazine in the waters of Southeastern MN (though it is all throughout corn country) – create a troubling appearance of reoccurring patterns that our state must address.  Not only to remedy the mistakes that have happened, but for our state to evaluate mines currently being proposed, to begin rebuilding lost public confidence, and to ensure that we have systems in place that protect the health of Minnesotans. 
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The Star Tribune’s Dan Browning and Tom Meersman have dug deeper into the whisteblower lawsuit filed last week against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).   It appears that the Department of Ag asked for an investigation of Paul Wotzka prior to his request to testify against the use of Atrazine.  It is unclear whether or not they asked for this investigation prior to or after Mr. Wotzka left Ag for the MPCA. 

Also, Tom at Sky Blue Waters adds a new dynamic wondering about the role of Wayne Anderson, MPCA policy directory and agency liason to the Department of Ag.  Mr. Anderson held a key role in the Atrazine controversy surrounding Dr. Tyrone Hayes a couple of years back. 

There are still a lot of questions that remain in all of this.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that Mr. Wotzka’s criticism of the Department of Ag’s love affair with ethanol was pretty well known prior to his departure from the agency.  Did that influence the agency’s actions?  What prompted Mr. Wotzka’s move from Ag to MPCA anyway?  Hopefully there will be some legislative inquiries into all of this soon.

Naively, I kind of thought these days were behind us… 

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I skipped town for a little while - just getting back last night.  So I’m a bit behind, but here are a few things that happened while I was away: (more…)