Minnesota Farmers Union

From National Farmers Union:

WASHINGTON (June 9, 2010) - Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) President Doug Peterson testified today before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power on the status of Upper Mississippi River water quality.

"This was a great opportunity to stress the need for farmer participation in this process to ensure implementation plans contain pollution reduction strategies that consider local needs," said Peterson.

The hearing was held as the subcommittee is considering S.2779, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act. Given the vast landscape over which water quality information will be gathered, implementation of data collection as proposed under this bill will require an extensive network of monitoring stations, equipment and personnel. With more than 60 percent of the Upper Mississippi River Basin in cropland or pasture, private landowners are logical partners in the establishment of a nutrient and sediment monitoring network.

"Private property rights should be recognized as a monitoring network is established and maintained," said Peterson. "It is absolutely critical that any data collected should be sensitive to landowner privacy as provided for in the legislation."

St. Paul (June 8, 2010) - Minnesota Farmers Union President Doug Peterson will be testifying in front of the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at 2 p.m. central time on Wednesday, June 9 in Washington, D.C. about S. 2779 which is a bill to promote Department of the Interior efforts to provide a scientific basis for the management of sediment and nutrient loss in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

"This is a great opportunity to stress the need for farmer participation in this process to ensure that implementation plans contain pollution reduction strategies that consider local needs," said Doug Peterson, Minnesota Farmers Union President.  "MFU is especially interested in inventory efforts to establish parameters around "natural" background loading in waters, and this legislation would hopefully work to address that."

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has identified 2,500 surface bodies of water as impaired which means they currently do not meet water quality standards for their designated use.