your council

At last nights Little Falls Council meeting your elected representatives voted to give $1,500.00 of your tax dollars to a lobbying firm; Flaherty and Hood (lobbyist Elizabeth Wefel at easefel@flaherty-hood.com for more info) that is fighting a legal battle to undermine the Minnesota Pollution Control Agencys new regulatory requirements pertaining to wastewater discharges into Lake Pepin watershed.

The Clean Water Act is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States. The statute employs a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff. 


Lake Pepin is at the downstream endpoint of the most polluted reach of the Mississippi River in the state.  It is no accident that this reach begins at the confluence with the Minnesota River.  The Minnesota supplies most of the sediment that makes the Mississippi constantly muddied, and threatens to fill Upper Lake Pepin with mud before the present century is past. Suspended solids from the Minnesota River make the Mississippi incapable of supporting the rich rooted vegetation that once made the river and Lake Pepin a haven for ducks and swans.  Nuisance algae blooms during hot, dry summers are another threat to water quality in Lake Pepin. Phosphorus concentrations are so high in the Mississippi, at 150 to 200 parts per billion, that a warm, calm dry spell in any summer could quickly trigger unsightly algae bloom.  While the MPCA has regulatory authority over wastewater discharge, agriculture-the source of much phosphorus and sediment in the Minnesota River-is largely unregulated. 


 The following is from a page from last night's council meeting:  These new regulatory requirements are likely to require costly upgrades at the wastewater plant.   Minnesota Environmental Science and Economic Review Board is appealing to the Minnesota Court of Appeals for river nutrient standards.  City staff (probably Greg Kimman) agrees with MESERB that  the new standards are not based on sound engineering science. (I bet he is a climate change denier also).  These new regulatory standards go into effect once the operating permit for the wastewater permit needs to be renewed.  In our case, our permit was scheduled for renewal in 2013, but has been delayed until the conclusion of the court proceedings. 

It is shocking that the City voted to authorize payment to a lobbying firm to undermine the MPCAs effort to stop further pollution from completely ruining Lake Pepin. 

The only council person to vote no was Alderman Crowder.