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Sparlin testifies for water storage bills

Walz favors $3 million to address water, climate issues

Submitted photo A wetlands in the Minnesota River watershed basin is a example of water storage. Minnesota River watershed water storage advocate Scott Sparlin of New Ulm has testified a number of times at the 92nd Legislature on water storage bills moving through the legislative process.

ST. PAUL — Minnesota River watershed water storage advocate Scott Sparlin of New Ulm has testified a number of times at the 92nd Legislature on water storage bills moving through the legislative process.

Sparlin said the bills that have bi-partisan support, will likely be rolled into one bill at the end of the session.

In addition, Sparlin said the bills are voluntary.

“Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. This is to establish and demonstrate,” said Sparlin.

His bill list includes Senate File 81, Minnesota River basin water quality and storage program establishment, authored by Assistant Minority Leader Nick Frentz, D, North Mankato; and Assistant Majority Leader Bill Weber, R, Luverne.

House File 518, watershed management provided, and water quality and storage in the Minnesota River program established, is authored by Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Todd Lippert, D-Northfield; and Rep. Peter Fischer, D-Maplewood.

“At the core of storing more water in and on the landscape by multiple methods of land management is a strategy that works with the forces of nature, not against them,” Sparlin testified on SF 81 to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Appropriations last month.

“As a state, we have not yet achieved a common direction, and so, we often propose policies and projects that are in opposition of one another. This bill is an opportunity to begin to correct that in the Minnesota River Water Watershed,” Sparlin testified. “We now need the commitment, and significant financial resources to accomplish the goal…This is not an investment we can ignore, or we will pay much higher prices in short years to come.”

Written support in the form of signed endorsements, resolutions or both for the water storage initiative has come from the cities of New Ulm, Mankato, Olivia, Nicollet, Redwood Falls, Springfield, Henderson, Granite Falls, Eden Prairie, Arlington and Amboy.

In addition, many other groups, including the New Ulm Area Sport Fishermen, Izaak Walton League Minnesota Valley Chapter and the Blue Earth, Brown, Martin Faribault, Cottonwood and McLeod County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, have signed endorsements or resolutions.

Sparlin praised the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for its work with water quality trading, a market-based tool for achieving improved water quality.

To offset pollutant discharges, an entity required to control a pollutant in a watershed can trade water quality credits with another entity in the same watershed to lower its pollution-control costs, read the MPCA website.

Water quality trading can enhance pollution reduction efforts while offering flexibility and cost savings to regulated municipalities and industries.

Water quality trades are implemented and enforced via MPCA permits. Creating a trade begins by contacting the agency to evaluate trading opportunties. The MPCA created a guide to the process.

“I think MPCA parameters and point to non-point source water quality trading will put some different money from public and private sources, into river improvement that otherwise wouldn’t be injected,” Sparlin said.

In addition, Sparlin said anything that holds back water in land or soil such as wetlands and cover crops, would be considered water storage.

In his 2021 budget proposal with HF 932/SF 1037, Gov. Tim Walz recommends $3 million to develop a statewide program leveraging local, federal, and private sector funds to address water quality and climate resiliency.

“Putting more water storage on our landscape will address these needs and create a more resilient landscape for Minnesota’s future,” read the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) water storage and treatment page.

“Minnesota is experiencing larger and more frequent and intense rainfall events, resulting in negative impacts to agriculture and infrastructure, significant riverbank erosion and declining water quality,” read the BWSR page.

For more information, visit https://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/water-quality-trading

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).

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