Kind, Klobuchar push river water quality legislation, page 1

Article here

"Studying soil erosion patterns will give Minnesota farmers the knowledge to combat nutrient loss in their soil," Klobuchar said in a statement. The entire Mississippi River basin takes up more than 40 percent of the United States, and is divided into sub-basins for the upper and lower Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Red rivers. Scientists say the upper Mississippi contributes more than its share of the nutrient pollution that creates what they call the "dead zone" - an area where plant and animal life is severely impaired - in the Gulf of Mexico. Klobuchar and Kind's bill makes sense to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency officials, including Bill Thompson, who manages water quality projects in southeast Minnesota. Thompson says the MPCA works with citizens and academics - including some at Winona State University - to monitor streams, rivers and lakes for pollutants such as coliform bacteria, DDT, mercury. Scientists also monitor turbidity, or the amount of cloudy sediment in a river. In Winona County the agency monitors Mississippi River tributaries including the Whitewater River,

This sounds like a good bill to me. Tracking waterways and how they affect soil conditions can be a great help to our farmers and riverfront communities.

I was especially interested that they might actually be actively tracking mercury levels, and other pollutants.

usa today - mercury in rivers

Taking care of our fresh water sources is something I think we should support. With better legislation we might finally be able to get a hold on the pollutants infesting our water.

reply to post by Seiko

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Sounds like she is just trying to create more government jobs to me. Just what the country needs more wasteful government spending.

reply to post by HotSauce

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The jobs are already there, as is the need.

What this bill aims to do is allow sharing of knowledge between state agencies for better tracking. If a pollutant is coming from up river across their borders, this sort of legislation can help.

Keeping the waterways cleaner is not an example of government waste.

reply to post by Seiko

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Well sounds like not all of the jobs are aready there. The word much does not mean all.

Much of that monitoring already is being done by state and local groups, particularly in Minnesota, where environmental officials say they've tracked water quality far more closely in the past decade

[edit on 21-11-2009 by HotSauce]

reply to post by HotSauce

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Are you against a job being created that helps to keep waterways clean?

We can pass all kinds of great laws that do great things, but enforcement is the key. Mercury shouldn't be finding it's way to our rivers and lakes. I don't know about you, but I drink liquid as a carbon based lifeform. Having access to clean h20 is important to me.

This law will also help track water turbidity and run off soil conditions. Supporting better ideas to make better use of the soil. This is something farmers will appreciate. A better understanding of how this cause and effect works will help in food productivity.

I also consume food, so again this is a good thing.

Originally posted by HotSauce
reply to post by Seiko

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Sounds like she is just trying to create more government jobs to me. Just what the country needs more wasteful government spending.

Are you saying that you want polluted waterways because it's a waste of money to clean them up?

reply to post by Seiko

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I am against creating anymore government jobs or expenses. We are 12 TRILLION dollars in debt.

Do you drink your water out of the Mississippi River?

reply to post by HotSauce

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Are you aware of how many waterways the missippi river connects to? Besides this legislation isn't about just one river. Are you aware of how toxic water can be when it's infested with metals and other pollutants?

I don't get this attitude that we can't do anything to better ourselves. We pay taxes, we blow money on useless things, but when something I feel is important comes along It has to take a back seat because of debt?

We might as well just never do anything with this sort of attitude. I choose to support the things I see as worthy. This is a worthy way to spend my tax money. You have the right to oppose it, but rest assured it's not going to save you tax money. They'll just find another way to blow it, so let's prioritize.

reply to post by Seiko

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Well we are in a situation where if we do not start drastically cutting the size and cost of the Federal. State, and Local governments and use the money to pay down their respective debts then the whole US financial system will collapse and then where will we be.? I know that sucks, but we either pay down the debt or collapse.

[edit on 21-11-2009 by HotSauce]

reply to post by Janky Red

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That's crazy. What we should do is break up water cleaning efforts by state colours. You know what I mean, red and blue, split it.

Hotsauce and his liberal buddies can drink all the dirty water they want.

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