Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
President Peterson to testify on Upper Mississippi River Basin in front of U.S. Senate Subcommittee
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.