Category Archives: Forums and Events

What To Do About Plastics

Environmental Issues, Forums and Events

We were joined by Jennifer Congdon, Deputy Director of Beyond Plastics, and Lori Olinger, Zero Waste Chair of the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter, to discuss the problems of plastics and how to address them. Here is the forum:

Caucus members are hard at work in developing resolutions related to plastic and waste, as well as water-related resolutions (see previous forum). Please consider joining us in this activity!

Is My Well Water Safe?

Environmental Issues, Environmental Poisons, Forums and Events

On October 29th, we held a forum on well water quality, pursuant to developing resolutions for the upcoming caucus-convention cycle.

We were joined by Rochester Geologist Jeff Broberg and MCEA’s Carly Griffith to learn about nitrate and arsenic contaminants in Minnesota’s well water. This forum was cohosted by the DFL Environmental Caucus and the DFL Rural Caucus.

See also: Southeast Minnesota struggles for common ground on nitrate pollution as health worries rise

For the latest on Nitrates in Minnesota’s drinking water, see this: EPA says Minnesota needs to take more action on nitrates in drinking water

Wild Rose

2023 Legislative Wrap-Up and DFL Environmental Caucus Meeting

Forums and Events

DFLEC Resolutions Committee co-chair (and Caucus Vice Chair) Matt Doll took a run at our resolutions, to see where they stand in relation to this year’s legislative session. Here are Matt’s preliminary notes:

  • Sustainable Ag – Success: Plenty of funding for Forever Green and similar projects in the Ag bill, plus some soil health support in the Environment bill.
  • Green New Deal – Partial Success: The Climate and Environment (Climera) bill is the largest clean energy investment in Minnesota’s history and has lots of focus on low-income communities. It’s not going to be enough, but it’s a really strong start.
  • Zero Carbon Economy – Success: We mandated 100% clean electricity by 2040. Our resolution says 2030, but it’s still a step forward, and it’s notable that the goal of net-zero economy wide emissions by 2050 is also in state law. The Climera and Transportation bills are huge for reducing emissions as well.
  • Clean Water Infrastructure – Success: The massive bipartisan bonding bill will include $500 million for water infrastructure.
  • Prove it First – No change: No bill hearing this session.
  • Reduce Pesticides – Partial Success: Some new pesticide protections, including provisions for treated seed, first class city control over pesticide regulations, and a ban on pollinator-lethal pesticides on DNR-controlled lands became law. PFAS in pesticides will also be regulated next decade. But not much was done overall to reduce agricultural pesticides.
  • Get the Lead Out – Major Success: A bill to replace every lead service line in public water systems in Minnesota by 2023 passed into law, which will help reduce lead exposure for more than 100,000 households. Unfortunately, only voluntary measures to reduce lead ammo and tackle were passed.
  • Oppose Rollbacks – Success: No rollbacks of note occurred this session.
  • Clean Transportation – Success: Transit, passenger rail, EVs, active transportation, and climate-friendly transportation planning were all well-supported by the omnibus bill.
  • No new fossil fuel infrastructure – Partial Success: The transportation omnibus includes some of the first major steps forward to reduce expansion of highway lanes through its inclusion of climate in Met Council and MnDOT planning.
  • Divestment – No major change
  • Rights of nature – No change
  • Electric co-ops – No change
  • Mining conflict of interest – No change
  • Waste reduction – Success: More than $26 million in the Climera bill for waste reduction.
  • Toxic substances – Success: Strong new restrictions on PFAS and other substances like lead and arsenic passed into law.

“We get the food systems we fund.”

Forums and Events

This evening, the DLF’s Scott County and SD 20 organizing units, together with the Environmental Caucus, held the Healthy Farms, Healthy Soils Forum, with special guests Laura Schreiber and Emily Minge from the Land Stewardship Project, Representative Todd Lippert (20B) and Minnesota farmer Dane Seifert. Dana gave a compelling overview of how the transition to healthy soils is working on her farm. (If you want to keep up with Land Stewardship Project events and updates, click here and sign up.)

Soil health matters. Healthy soils play an important role in ecosystems. Farming tends to damage soil and make it less healthy.

Principles of soil health include “armoring the soil” to protect it from erosion and degradation, minimizing disturbance of the soil, increasing and maintaining plant diversity, encouraging healthy roots, and integrating the soil biological activity with livestock. A major goal of healthy soil is to help soil become a better and very effective carbon sink. This also reduces the need for as much chemical treatment of agricultural lands.

Rep. Lippert has a bill that will make it easier, or really, possible, for farmers to change their practices to support healthy soil, with less of the risk that may arise from trying something entirely new.

As noted by Dana: “We get the farm system we fund.”

Check out the Land Stewardship Project white paper: Farming to Capture Carbon and Address Climate Change Through Building Soil Health.

From last session’s Agriculture Committee hearings on HF701, Representative Lippert’s bill:

It was a great forum. We will post the video when it becomes available to us.

PFAS in everything! A DFLEC Forum

Forums and Events,

A DFLEC forum on PFAS, recorded on September 28th, at 6:30 PM on Zooom

The term “PFAS” refers to a large class of synthetic chemicals that include perflourooctanoic acid, perfluorooctane sulonate, “GenX”, and a host of others. The US EPA lists over 8,000 of them. Ultimately, these chemicals are used in the production of stain repellents, polishes, paints, and other coatings. They are something of a wonder molecule, with amazing properties and many uses. Unfortunately, there are also health and environmental concerns. They are linked, sometimes more clearly, sometimes less, to a wide range of health issues. They are also persistent in the environment, thus the nickname “forever chemicals.”

PFAS…

  • In everything—food packaging, goretex, firefighting foam, carpet, fabrics in car, nonstick cookware,
  • All over the planet—in polar bears, in us, in our water supply, in fish, in bald eagles.
  • All over the state: problems in Pine Island, Bemidji, Duluth, east metro

This problem is most publicized in the Twin Cities East metro where these chemicals contaminate groundwater used by over 100,000 people. You may have read about the recent $850 million settlement with 3M for landfill dumping, which included:

  • $700 M for new municipal wells, treatment, POETs
  • $20 M for natural resource impacts
  • $30 M for interim projects already funded
  • $100 M went to the lawyers

As we learn more about health impacts of PFAS, the acceptable limit keeps getting reduced; settlement treats to half of the current HBV (health-based value)

Our guests for the forum:

Jay Eidsness: Health Effects and Pathways to the Environment

  • Companies continue to release new chemicals (PFOA and PFOS are gone, but replaced with others that have lesser-known impacts)
  • Action item: strengthen disclosure requirements for manufacturers to aid our state regulators in identifying these chemicals in the environment. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, current detection and testing methods only detect around 1% of PFAS, which is troubling. I think we can all agree that something needs to be done to increase this number.

Representative Ami Waslawik: Food Packaging Legislation from 2021

  • Future legislation?
  • What do we need?
  • What could pass?