At December’s meeting, the stewards discussed the upcoming legislative session. In particular, they’d like to help develop and support bills relating to lead service lines, lead in school drinking water, wake boats, road salt, a ban on non-essential PFAS use, and a public water inventory. Agricultural pollution is still one of the team’s priorities, and they support the efforts of allies in the Land Stewardship Project, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and Friends of the Mississippi River to develop legislative language that will ensure that the MDA Certification Program is meeting necessary guidelines.
Wake boats also remain a priority, and a subgroup is reviewing recent research on the damage done by both wave energy and propeller wash with an eye toward drafting future legislation for Minnesota. More urgently, they’re concerned about Niagara Bottling's plan to build a new plant in Elko New Market, and they support the East Phillips Neighborhood initiative to build an urban farm on the old Anchor Depot site.
Finally, the team has been working some natural history into their meetings, and they chatted about fishing spiders that can dive under the water and, as the name implies, catch fish. They can stay underwater for up to thirty minutes because the hairs on their legs and bodies trap air. Amazing!