Skip to main content

Rep. Poston co-sponsors reducing sulfate standards

State Representative John Poston is a cosponsor for this nasty piece of legislation. This is after an Administrative Law Judge refused to lower the standard at the request of  the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Shame on John Poston. Please email and/or call him and tell him to remove is support. (This information is from Water Legacy in Duluth http://waterlegacy.org
----------------------------
Sulfate pollution increases mercury contamination of fish, posing a serious threat to the health of Minnesota infants and children.

New peer-reviewed research shows that sulfate pollution can multiply by almost 6 times the amount of toxic methylmercury available to accumulate in the food chain and contaminate fish eaten by Minnesotans. Removing controls on sulfate pollution in Minnesota, thus, poses a serious risk of brain damage and lower IQ for Minnesota fetuses, infants and children.
Yet, powerful mining special interests and the politicians who do their bidding are now trying to repeal Minnesota’s wild rice sulfate standard. Bills to allow sulfate pollution have already been approved in committees in both the Minnesota House and Senate. 

Protect Minnesota infants from toxic mercury!

 The special interest sulfate bills making their way through the Minnesota Legislature (HF 3280/SF 2983) would: 1) eliminate Minnesota’s existing water quality standard for sulfate of 10 parts per million in wild rice waters; 2) limit the wild rice waters to which any sulfate standard could apply; and 3) block enforcement of any permits that require treatment to limit sulfate pollution (including PolyMet mine permits!)
Wild Rice - Thanks Wikipedia
Minnesota’s wild rice standard has already been upheld twice in state court. In January, an independent Administrative Law Judge found that repealing the wild rice sulfate standard or restricting the number of wild rice waters protected from sulfate pollution would violate the federal Clean Water Act. Yet, special interests are trying to force Minnesota to violate federal law! It would be absurd if it weren’t so dangerous.

Eliminating the wild rice sulfate standard and blocking permit enforcement would decimate wild rice and place an unjust burden on Minnesota’s tribal communities. 
For 10 years, foreign copper-nickel mining interests have promised to use modern reverse osmosis water treatment to protect clean water and public health from sulfate pollution. Now, the special interest bills attacking Minnesota’s wild rice standard would prevent any costs for treatment to comply with sulfate standards. Have we been lied to again?

 Tell your Legislator and Governor Dayton to stop foreign corporations from breaking their promises to control copper-nickel mining pollution.

 Please share this email with your friends, family and neighbors. You can also call your State Senator and Representative and make sure they know how you feel.
Help us to stand up for the rule of law, clean water, wild rice, tribal rights, and the developing brains of the next generation.

 Sincerely,

 Paula Goodman Maccabee
Advocacy Director and Counsel for WaterLegacy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let us all walk in the foot steps of John Lewis

By John King In Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, John Lewis, standing in the lead of a long line of marchers, looked down from the crest of The Edmund Pettus Bridge at the line of police armed with clubs, whips and truncheons and said, “I am going to die here.” Lewis intended to lead the marchers from Selma to the capital Montgomery, to demand access to voting for Black people in Alabama. Sheriff Jim Clark lowered his gas mask and led the deputies, some on horseback and some on foot, into the line of marchers. Under swinging clubs and hooves trampling, Lewis was the first to go down. Women and children were not spared. Choking and blinded by tear gas, they were struck by clubs and truncheons wrapped with barbed wire. Lewis, with a fractured skull and a severe concussion, almost did die. The nearby Good Samaritan Hospital did not have enough beds to care for the injured marchers. A nation watched in horror as news footage of that bloody day appeared on T
2 comments
Read more

More Republican dirty tricks

  As a Blue Dog Corporate Democrat, 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson’s votes in Congress go against the beliefs and convictions of progressive voters in our district. I’m one of those progressive 7th District voters. Like most average voters I rarely actually encounter my Member of Congress. However, I recall three encounters with Rep. Peterson over the many years I’ve been stuck with him. I met him at Mikey’s Restaurant, on Main Street in Long Prairie, when he was first campaigning for a seat in Congress. We were both young then and he was full of energy and inspired in me a sense of hope for positive change. Besides, I’d met the Republican incumbent. He was an older man who, it seemed, was operating on dead batteries. I was happy to vote for the energetic Peterson. Some years later I was a delegate to the DFL District convention in Bemidji. Peterson opposed a woman’s right to choose abortion. He was being challenged by a woman who supported the right to that choice. I gave my
Post a Comment
Read more

Step aside Republicans; Minnesotans want electric vehicles

Late last month Senator Paul Gazelka, the Republican leader of the Senate, told the Minnesota Reformer that the Republican controlled Senate would likely fire the acting Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Laura Bishop, if the Agency, at the behest of the Governor, went ahead with the Clean Car Rule. The rule would require automakers to increase the number of electric vehicles they deliver to Minnesota auto dealers. Gazelka told The Reformer that he’d had “a conversation” with Bishop about the rule. Bishop has not been confirmed by the Senate. Gazelka, and his Republican colleagues, claim that electric vehicles are too expensive and that the rule would be a burden to Minnesotans. Gazelka, and the rest of his Party are wrong. They aren’t paying attention to the economics of EV ownership and they are not paying attention to consumer preferences. Way back in September 2019, Consumer Reports reported on a study of Minnesotans they had done in collaboration with the
2 comments
Read more