New Law Intensifies Water Diversion Debate
Some say exporting bottled water is poor route to prosperity
By Andy Guy
Great Lakes Bulletin News Service
LANSING—Just weeks after Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a package of bills to prevent mass diversions and ill-advised withdrawals of water from the Great Lakes, the debate about how the state should organize economic development around its unmatched water resource is intensifying.
http://www.mlui.org/landwater/fullarticle.asp?fileid=17020
Spindly aquatic algae, once foul-smelling icons for Great Lakes pollution, are back. During the depths of the lakes' environmental troubles in the 1960s and '70s, the algae's population exploded. Vast clumps piled up on beaches, looking like untreated sewage and smelling like a pig farm.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0330/p14s01-sten.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE More Information: Jim Olson 231-499-8831
March 29, 2006 or Terry Swier 231-972-8856
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation Asks Michigan Supreme Court to Hear Case
Traverse City - Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has filed an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court in its case, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v Nestlé Waters North America, Inc, asking the Court to put the rights of landowners who live on Michigan’s lakes and streams, and the public who uses and enjoys them, back under the protection of established water law.
Last December the Court of Appeals overturned a landmark 2003 decision by a Mecosta County trial court that shut down Nestle’s high-capacity wells used to pump and divert water to a bottling plant for shipment out of Michigan’s watershed and the Great Lakes Basin. The Court of Appeals decision created a new “reasonable use balancing” rule that opens the door to Michigan’s water to Nestle and other future exporters of water.
“Before the ruling, Michigan riparian water law did not allow diversions and exports of water out of watersheds if it diminished the flow and levels, or interfered with riparian landowners or the public’s use of a lake or stream,” Terry Swier, President of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, said. “Now landowners and the public will have to wait until they have suffered substantial injury before they can do anything about it, and then they probably won’t be able to afford to do anything. If the Court of Appeals decision is left standing, the many businesses who rely on the water, and the public who fish, boat and swim in Michigan’s lakes and streams, are all going to be required to stand in line with those who want to sell our common water for use somewhere else,” she said.
The Court of Appeals also ruled that landowners and the public will now have to suffer unreasonable harm to their water and rights if a water exporter shows there’s more social good and economic benefit in selling water somewhere else. “The Court of Appeals did an admirable job understanding the seriousness of the harm,” Swier said, “but in the end the ruling shifted Michigan water law in favor of water diversions and exports. This means the rest of the thirsty world in an ever increasing world water crisis will have equal dibs to the water that’s been flowing here since the time of the glaciers.”
Established common law protects riparian landowners and public use and the enjoyment of Michigan’s magnificent waters. The Court of Appeals eliminated this protection. The Supreme Court will be asked to restore it consistent with the provisions of a newly enacted state water law that expressly preserves these common law riparian rights and protections. Michigan’s long-term economy and quality of life depend on its lakes and streams and abundant aquatic life for it’s commercial endeavor and recreational enjoyment. The Court of Appeals “reasonable use balancing test” will allow Nestlé, who has no riparian rights, to extract, divert, and sell water out of the Great Lakes Basin to be used elsewhere in the world. Riparian owners and users will be forced into competition with a vastly expanded universe of regional, national, and even global water users.
Jim Olson of Olson, Bzdok and Howard, attorneys for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, said, “As Michigan enters the 21st Century with the rising world water crisis, it is critical for the Court to clarify the power and claims that may be used by landowners, citizens and the State to preserve private riparian and public trust rights in the State’s waters from harm as the result of removals of large quantities of water that feeds our lakes and streams.”
The spring aquifer from which Nestlé extracts the spring water forms the headwaters of the West Branch of the Little Muskegon River that feeds several lakes. For every gallon Nestle removes from the spring aquifer, nearly a gallon is removed from the stream and lakes. Nestles pumping of water has reduced flows and levels and physically and substantially harmed the stream and two lakes and interfered with the rights of riparian landowners and public who can no longer use and enjoy the stream for boating and fishing.
MCWC and Nestlé entered into a Stipulated Remand Order restricting pumping limits to an average of 218 gallons per minute from the Sanctuary Site until the case is heard in the Michigan Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, and returns the common law to limitations that protect private property and public rights, the pumping limits will have to be reduced or halted.
An idea that should go statewide -- and Great Lakes Basin-wide. Most yards do not need more phosphorus to support healthy lawns. The excess runs off into drains, lakes and streams and feeds algae blooms.
Muskegon County homeowners who demand lush green lawns may soon be required to use different fertilizers to nurture their grass.
A coalition of local officials and environmental advocates unveiled a proposal Thursday to ban the sale and use of phosphorous-based fertilizers countywide.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1143217043319020.xml&coll=8
Lake Erie never froze over this winter.
January was the warmest month over most of the United States in 100 years.
More frequent, more intense hurricanes.
The public is starting to understand what's going on.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=1750492&page=1
North Dakota farm children exposed to pesticides performed significantly lower than their peers in IQ tests, according to preliminary results of a study released Thursday.
Researchers at the University of North Dakota studied two groups of children in the northern Red River Valley, one group living on or near an active farm or field, another living at least a mile away from those locations.
Children living on or near farms tested an average of five points lower on standard IQ tests, said Patricia Moulton, an experimental psychologist at UND.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=121375§ion=News
Lake Superior is a healer today. Sunlight lays silver across the textured waves. They murmur the ledge rock and seethe across the beach. I walk the dog, and the light and the lake and the quiet pour balm over my soul.
http://www.grandmarais-mn.com/placed/index.php?sect_rank=5&story_id=216868
The editorial below from a Wisconsin daily is characteristic of the responses from the region's media to last week's dismissive comments by a Parched State lawmaker about new federal funding for the Great Lakes. It's good to see a spirited defense of the Lakes, but could it be that Inhofe (by sheer random chance) had a point if he says the proposed Great Lakes restoration plan needs more work?
Astonishingly, and apparently also by sheer random chance, the only dissenting witness at last week's Congressional hearing on the Lakes, speaking for the corporate-bankrolled, anti-environmental Mackinac Center, made an apt comment:
The Strategy also suffers from internal inconsistency. On the one hand, the report laments the failure of existing programs to adequately protect the Great Lakes. On the other hand, the Strategy calls for greatly expanding the regulatory powers of the very government agencies that the Strategy argues have mismanaged the job.
Although the point she tried to make is that the strategy leans too heavily on regulation and enforcement -- which it doesn't; it's mostly grants and incentives -- she has a point. The same agencies that critics say have bungled management of the Lakes are assigned vast new funding and responsibility under the Collaborative strategy.
Maybe it's time to take a hard look at that strategy -- and come up with some new institutional arrangements for the Great Lakes and public oversight of same. We can easily spend the requested $20 billion for the Great Lakes on real needs, but there is reason to doubt whether the current proposed plan is going to do so effectively.
http://www.ashland-wi.com/dailypress/index.php?sect_rank=6&story_id=209035
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., needs to spend time around the Great Lakes. Or at least some more time around some Great Lakes lawmakers.
The chairman of the Senate environment committee said last week the Great Lakes restoration plan needs more work. That was a blow to the officials and 1,500 citizens who had input into the plan, which sets out priorities such as protecting the lakes from invasive species, improving the watershed and keeping drinking water safe.
Twenty liters of water is about what one person can carry. It is also the amount the World Water Council considers the minimum needed for daily human existence, including drinking, washing and cooking. So perhaps it's no coincidence that the largest containers allowed for use exporting water from Michigan are been fixed by law at 20 liters or 5.7 gallons, which is slightly bigger
For Americans, 20 liters is only a bit more than three flushes of the toilet and about 6% of a day's worth of water use. In the Great Lakes basin, where the wastewater gets treated and returned to the lakes, few people have to fret about adequate supplies or worry about their health as a result.
Yet even here, the long-term prospects argue for caution, including what might happen under global warming scenarios. This winter, as if by way of preview, little or no snowpack formed in the upper reaches of the Great Lakes basin, so no significant rebound in water levels will occur this spring. That's one more worrisome sign the Great Lakes need careful tending now.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060322/OPINION01/603220323
Water should remain a public, common good, democratically owned and locally controlled. It should be protected as a fundamental human right under a global treaty similar to the one that now protects people in more than 120 countries from the deadly abuses of big tobacco corporations.
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/319384.html
A Toronto Star editorial recently called a frightening irony to our attention. On the same day a United Nations report warned that more than a billion people worldwide face growing shortages of water, American scientists announced they found evidence of water on Enceladus, a far-off moon of Saturn.
Maine, Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and the Great Lakes states all appear to be well endowed with clean fresh water, yet appearances can be deceiving.
The Midwest, home to the world's most expansive source of fresh water, demonstrates a prototypically American pattern of water use and a "what me worry" mentality. Five years ago, The New York Times reported a story that has become all too typical. "In the Chicago area, hydrologists say land that would normally soak in water and replenish aquifers has been paved over, effectively blocking water needed to refill the underground basins. In past shortages, people tapped into Lake Michigan. When Chicago was coming of age, it reversed the flow of the Chicago River, draining water out of Lake Michigan instead of into it. Now, the so-called collar counties around Chicago, which are expected to add 1.3 million people over the next 18 years, find that the lake is off limits and supplies below ground are not being adequately replenished."
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=130846
In Minnesota, anglers and hunters are pushing hard...
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=121112
Worries over how to restore and protect game and fish habitats has revived momentum at the Capitol this year for a long-sought ballot measure. It would ask voters this fall to constitutionally dedicate a small piece of the state sales tax to natural resources.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The ten Coast Guard vessels that patrol the Great Lakes are now equipped with mounted machine guns.
Coast Guard officials say the guns were added because of the increased need for security following the September 11th terrorist attacks.
http://www.wkyc.com/news/rss_article.aspx?ref=RSS&storyid=49477
We at John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago are concerned and disappointed that no additional funding for Great Lakes restoration is included in President Bush's 2007 budget. Indeed, a rising chorus has been heard among legislators, editorial boards, conservation organizations, civic groups and citizens in every state around the Great Lakes basin.
Yesterday's Congressional hearing on the Great Lakes...
http://epw.senate.gov/hearing_statements.cfm?id=252789
Reports are that the turnout of Great Lakes supporters was impressive to overflowing, and the region's Senators did a fine job...
That an Oklahoma right-winger doesn't want to spend $20 billion on the Great lakes? Not. The sun not rising today, that would be staggering.
A Great Lakes cleanup plan prepared at President Bush's request is too aggressive for the tight federal budget, a senator who is key to securing funding for the proposal said Thursday.
A warning that the plan still needs work was staggering to a Senate hearing full of leaders from Great Lakes states and environmentalists pleading for immediate action to protect a major global resource.
Great map of areas of critical conservation value in the Great Lakes Basin, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy of Canada and the U.S.:
http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/greatlakes/files/tnc_great_lakes_web.pdf
In mid-winter, the waves of Lake Superior are so cold you can almost hear them shatter when they break.
But for decades, the Great Lakes have drawn their own kind of surfer — a hearty breed of ice warriors who ride those Great White Waves all year round.
Now, the surprisingly strong surf on the Great Lakes, as well as more traditional enclaves in British Columbia and Newfoundland, is luring a Florida firm to the scene.
Ron Jon Surf Shop, which sells everything from bathing suits to boogie boards, is making its first foray into the Canadian market this year, with plans to license six shops across the country.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1142031014669&call_pageid=1012319932217
Groups Call For Stronger Water Protections
Conglomerate’s Disclosure Points To Dangerous Loophole In New Great Lakes Water Law
LANSING—Tuesday’s disclosure that Nestle Corporation North America will likely bottle and ship millions of gallons of Great Lakes waters from a new plant in northern Michigan has prompted two leading water protection groups to call for strong measures to combat the export and privatization of Michigan’s waters. Clean Water Action and Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation said Michigan needs to put Great Lakes protections in its Constitution.
“By Nestle’s own count, they will bottle and ship annually nearly 170 million gallons of Great Lakes waters from the City of Evart’s municipal water supply within the next three years, and will do so under the first legally sanctioned diversion of Great Lakes waters since the 1900s,” said David Holtz, Clean Water Action’s Michigan Director. “This was an entirely anticipated outcome of the new water legislation and should be a wakeup call for lawmakers and the public to close this dangerous loophole. When you combine this with Nestle’s withdrawals from headwaters of a stream and lakes in Mecosta County, this one company alone will withdraw nearly 300 million gallons a year.”
Holtz and Terry Swier, President of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, called on Michigan lawmakers to place a proposal on the 2006 Michigan ballot to give voters an opportunity to amend the Michigan Constitution to protect Great Lakes waters.
“It is clear to many of us that unless we give the Great Lakes our strongest possible protections, it is likely that large corporate interests and their friends in Lansing and Washington, DC will be unable to resist turning our public waters into private wells,” said Holtz. “I can’t think of a more important resource to protect in the Michigan Constitution than the Great Lakes.”
"Nestle waited until it could obtain legislative exemption in Michigan for bottled water before it dropped both the state and federal lawsuits," said Swier, refering to Nestle's decision this week to drop litigation challenging federal and state water protections. "Only with public control should Michigan consider allowing private sale of water. Only this will ensure long-term jobs and clean, abundant water and lakes, streams and the Great Lakes."
“The few jobs promised by Nestle will never make up for the problems with the state's economy,” said James Olson, attorney for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation. “If anything, the giving away of a valuable public resource in exchange for a few jobs is an outrageously reckless policy decision. Michigan is giving away, not even selling its birth right to its water legacy. The original idea of establishing a Michigan legacy for water for the state has turned into a long-term liability.”
Under the new water rules signed into law in February, water shipped outside the Great Lakes basin in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons would be classified as a "consumptive use," not a diversion. State permits would be required under limited standards for any new or expanded water bottling plants withdrawing more than 250,000 gallons per day. Permitting, said Holtz, is too weak a system for protecting the Great Lakes.
Holtz pointed out there is no limit on the amount of water that can be exported under Michigan’s new permit rules. And he predicted that the special interest exemption from diversion for some water exports is a slippery slope toward virtually unlimited water exports and the eventual privatization of Great Lakes waters.
As the worldwide demand for water increases and the Great Lakes State becomes more and more of a magnet for water export plants, the political clout of international water companies will increase. “Eventually you will see special interest money being used to create even larger loopholes for water exports,” Holtz said. “That’s why we must put the Great Lakes and Michigan’s waters into the Michigan Constitution.”
According to Muchmore, uncertainties surrounding Michigan's regulatory environment had caused the company to look at sites in states other than Michigan for a location for its proposed bottling plant. With the restrictions removed, Michigan is now on an equal playing field with other possible locations.
Translation: According to Muchmore, Michigan's 21-year-old ban on diverting Great Lakes water was a major impediment to Nestle's plans to bottle the Great Lakes and sell them. Now that the ban has been rescinded for diversions in containers under 5.7 gallons, Michigan can look forward to a future of "water out, (Canadian) trash in."
For "as many as" 200 jobs, Michigan sells its priceless heritage and its soul.
http://www.cadillacnews.com/articles/2006/03/14/news/news08.txt
News item:
NESTLE WITHDRAWS WATER LAWSUITS
Nestle Waters North America, which owns the embattled Ice Mountain water bottling plant in the state, has ended both federal and state lawsuits designed to protect its ability to distribute water from the plant.
Water protection legislation enacted last month effectively lifts any limitations on distribution from the plant, company officials said on announcing dismissal of the lawsuits. The law does not consider containers less than 5.7 gallons to be a diversion of water from the Great Lakes Basin.
The state had imposed restrictions, pending enactment of the law, that forbade the company from distributing bottled water outside the state. Bob McCann with the Department of Environmental Quality said the department had issued new permits to the plant earlier this month, following a new executive directive from Governor Jennifer Granholm, that allowed the plant wider distribution.
"We are pleased with the satisfactory resolution of these issues," said Kim Jeffery, President and CEO of Nestle Waters North America. "We firmly believed in the rights of our company - and all companies - to do business on a fair and level playing field, and that the restrictions imposed on our Michigan operations were unjust and unjustified. Today, Michigan has taken the appropriate steps to right this error, and we find the future of our business in Michigan to be much more certain."
"We are pleased, as is Nestle, that we were able to get some legislative certainty around this issue," Mr. McCann said. It's good that now we're able to put all that behind us."
Legislative certainty? Uh-uh. Behind us? No way.
The legislature has enacted a patchwork law that applies to a few streams in the state. It has yet to enact anything close to certainty.
Ultimately, the constituents of the legislature -- the people of Michigan -- will decide whether the legislature was correct to authorize unlimited exports of Michigan/Great Lakes Basin water in bottles. To say the issue is "behind us" is wishful thinking.
It's too bad that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality didn't take a stronger stand against water export from the beginning in 2001, when Perrier (now Nestle) came to Michigan after being booted out of Wisconsin by citizens.
Tim Eder, water resources director for the National Wildlife Federation, said officials should fast-track a government-sponsored inquiry.
"The amount being lost through the St. Clair River is far in excess of the Chicago Diversion or any other diversion that could be contemplated," Eder said. "We're making the drain bigger, water is going out faster to the ocean, and it's never coming back."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060312/METRO/603120350/1003/rss
NATURAL RESOURCES
Pawlenty urged the Legislature to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot asking the public to dedicate money for long-term conservation and water cleanup. That money would come from existing tax revenue. To get the water-cleanup effort moving, he recommended a $20 million infusion this session.
He also said lawmakers should require large utilities to cut mercury emissions by 90 percent before a federal deadline and should pass a $200 million outdoors bonding package.
The number of moose on Lake Superior's Isle Royale dropped to 450 this winter, the lowest level since scientists began tracking the animals nearly a half-century ago.
The moose population is down from 540 last year and is a fraction of the all-time high moose population of 2,442 in 1995. There is a concern that the dwindling numbers also could hurt the island's three wolf packs.
The number of wolves on the island is holding steady at 30, according to the annual survey by Michigan Technological University researchers. But that stability may not last as moose become too scarce to feed the packs.
Once upon a time, East Lansing, Michigan was represented by people who thought that special interests needed to be challenged.
WASHINGTON - The House voted Wednesday to strip many warnings from food labels, potentially affecting alerts about arsenic in bottled water, lead in candy and allergy-causing sulfites, among others.
Sponsor of said legislation -- U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Greedy Special Interests.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060309/ap_on_he_me/food_warnings
This is a worthwhile idea, a noble initiative. But shouldn't we have a government capable of maintaining our national parks?
The National Parks of Lake Superior Fund (NPLSF) is a newly organized, privately funded effort to fund special projects in the four U.S. national parks on Lake Superior, over and above current appropriated funds. The Fund’s mission is to support the stewardship of the natural and cultural resources of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park and Grand Portage National Monument, and to enrich the experience of those who visit these special places.
http://www.businessnorth.com/pr.asp?RID=1708
GRAND RAPIDS - Officials in nine west Michigan lakefront towns hope a public television show will boost tourism when warmer weather arrives.
Nine Lake Michigan communities will be featured in an hourlong episode of "Great Lakes Ports of Call" named "Michigan's Beachtowns."
So far, 18 Midwestern public television stations have picked up the show in cities such as Detroit and Chicago. Each station could run the show several times, beginning with this month's pledge drives.
Original article from Grand Rapids Press here:
http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1141557518119930.xml?grpress?NEOU&coll=6
Better photo here:
http://lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060306/NEWS01/603060333/1001/EATONRAPIDS
MANISTEE - Members of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians hope to restock Lake Michigan with a prehistoric fish known for its large size and a back covered with rows of bony plates.
The sturgeon is considered historically important to the tribe and was once a major food source, said Glenn Zaring, tribe spokesman.
"Because of the way the sturgeon have been depleted over the years, we have taken this on as a cultural project, as well as a science project," Zaring said.
http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/mar/04sturg.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Most of the nation's rivers and streams - and the fish in them - are contaminated with pesticides linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders, but not at levels that can harm humans.
http://www.startribune.com/1244/story/284736.html
This generally factual article gets one big thing wrong -- "not at levels that can harm humans." No one can be sure of this, as the mixture of pesticides found in the real world has never been tested in a lab. "Not at levels that pesticide makers think can harm humans" is more accurate.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture does a good job of regulating and monitoring pesticides overall, according to a report, but improvements are needed in several areas. The legislative auditor's office presented the report Friday to a panel of legislators in St. Paul.
The study recommended that state agricultural officials should decide which new pesticides entering the market pose greater risks and need to be reviewed in detail for use in Minnesota. Pesticides are now evaluated by federal experts, but the report said that additional state review is warranted in some cases.
http://www.startribune.com/789/story/284492.html
Exactly. All states should retain authority and initiative to go beyond weak federal minimums in dealing with pesticides, especially for their impact on children and other vulnerable populations.
Thousands of Chicago homeowners happily watered their lawns without giving it a second thought during the bone-dry months of last summer even as the yards of their suburban brethren turned brown.
But the handle on the free-flowing spigot is about to tighten.
The Daley administration plans to purchase an automated meter-reading system that officials said Thursday is a first step toward installing water meters citywide to reduce waste.
Currently, 160,000 properties in the city are metered. But the owners of about 350,000 homes and small apartment buildings are able to let the water flow unencumbered by worries about how much it will cost. Unmetered, they get flat-rate bills no matter how much water they use.
Some homeowners are expected to be less than ecstatic about the impending change, first telegraphed by Mayor Richard Daley three years ago.
But one happy person on Thursday was Cameron Davis, executive director of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
The city's system "is long overdue for change," Davis said. "I think it is important for people to know we send about 2 billion gallons of Lake Michigan water away from the lake every day. Everything we can do to know what we are using so that we can conserve Lake Michigan is smart."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0603030275mar03,1,1017456.story
The purveyors of half-truths and idiotic logic are still at it regarding the use of water in Michigan.
And this letter to the editor in the Grand Rapids Press is a perfect example.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1141316724159890.xml&coll=6
The author of this letter apparently thinks taking water from a spring and putting it in a bottle and calling it a product is the same as using water to make soda pop or automobiles.
Has he ever heard of international trade agreements and the public trust doctrine? Apparently not.
No wonder Nestle is capturing Michigan's water.
Michigan U.S. Representative Mike Rogers has always been a captive of moneyed lobbyists -- he was responsible while a state legislator for rolling back the state's building energy efficiency standards to the caveman era -- but now he's about to do even more damage to the public interest.
The House is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would pre-empt all state food safety regulations that are more stringent than federal standards.
But critics of the measure — including state departments of agriculture, state food and drug officials, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the California attorney general and a long list of consumer advocacy groups — say it would gut all state regulations, including food safety investigations and sanitation standards for restaurants. In some instances, they say, the bill would replace regulations with nothing because there are no federal standards.
The bill, introduced by Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, has 226 co-sponsors from both parties. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved it, largely along party lines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/politics/01food.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Sanitation standards for restaurants? At one point the radical right's idea was to strangle government in its crib; now the idea is to gag us.
The state "tolerances" that could be wiped out by this bill include many tolerances for environmental chemicals.
Fardin Oliaei gave Minnesota a parting gift Monday — a 79-page report that outlines contamination from a troublesome family of chemicals once manufactured by 3M Co. and recommends ways to research it further.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/industries/environment/13977665.htm