Dayton presses Minnesota lawmakers to do more to protect water

Hoping to rally public support for his clean water initiatives and pressure the Legislature to do more this session, Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday declared it "Water Action Week."

Dayton said he wants to make Minnesotans more aware of the quality of their drinking water and get them involved in efforts to protect it.

"Ultimately, clean water is not going to come from laws and rules and regulations, although they're necessary and more may be necessary," he told reporters. "It's going to come from an ethic, an ethic that's established all over this state that each of us has our own responsibility for making water quality better and conserving it and using it wisely."

Dayton has been pushing hard for improvements since state studies first alerted him to deteriorating water quality. Troubling levels of nitrates, phosphorus and other chemicals are found in some drinking water supplies.

Last session, he championed a farm-field buffer requirement to prevent runoff. This year, he hosted a statewide summit on water quality and proposed a $220 million state investment in water projects and programs.

Dayton plans to visit a school, a research facility and two municipal water treatment plants this week to share his message. He said the effort will continue this summer with an 87-county tour to showcase water-quality challenges and successes throughout the state.

The governor on Monday said he wants people to better understand whether they're at risk.

"I'm not trying to scare anybody," he said. "If your water quality is good, then you don't need to be concerned. But if it's not, you do need to be concerned and you need to communicate to those who are responsible for it, whoever they may be, that that's unacceptable."

The widely reported water crisis in Flint, Mich., has added to the concern. Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger said his agency is always looking for lead in drinking water.

While Flint's experience is rare, "lead contamination is still a problem, because many homeowners have houses where they have lead pipes. So we have to continually monitor that," he said.

Dayton said House Republicans' proposal for a $600 million bonding bill is "woefully inadequate" to make needed water infrastructure improvements. His bonding bill proposal totals $1.4 billion, including $167 million to help small communities replace aging drinking water and waste water facilities.

House Capital Investment Committee Chair Rep. Paul Torkelson said he shares the governor's interest in water quality projects. But Torkelson, R-Hanska, isn't ready to say how many of those projects might fit into the House bonding bill, or when the proposal will be released.

"We are looking at various proposals and how they would fit within that $600 million target. That's challenging work, but I'm prepared to take it on," he added. "My advice is stay tuned, because these are dynamic issues that can change over time."