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  For Immediate Release: Contact Patrick Moore: 320-269-2984 Cell: 320-841-1487 Grassroots Groups Call on State to Step Up Minnesota River Protection An alliance of Minnesota River groups called today on Governor Pawlenty to step up efforts to protect Minnesota’s water rights from unauthorized water draw downs on Big Stone Lake by the proposed Big Stone II coal fired power plant in eastern South Dakota, just across the border from Ortonville, Minnesota. The call to assert Minnesota’s border water rights came in the wake of the Washington D.C. based American Rivers’ designation of the Minnesota River as one of the 10 “most endangered rivers in the nation” because of the water draw down, mercury pollution and global warming threats to the Minnesota River posed by Big Stone II. “The state of Minnesota cannot simply stand idly by while the State of South Dakota gives away 6.4 billion gallons of river and ground water to business interests without following the established process for dealing with border water disputes,” stated Scott Sparlin, founder and executive director of the Coalition for a Clean Minnesota River. Sparlin of New Ulm and other Minnesota River advocates from Ortonville, Montevideo and Bloomington called upon Governor Pawlenty to use his “bully pulpit” to insist that South Dakota come to the bargaining table to discuss interstate water allocation issues via the Minnesota South Dakota Boundary Waters Commission which was originally established after the drought of the 1930’s to work out water allocation issues between the states. “Imagine if a Wisconsin company was to withdraw 20 percent of Lake Pepin’s water annually without asking for Minnesota’s permission,” stated Duane Ninneman of Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) based in the Montevideo, MN area. “This is what the Big Stone II plant intends to do on Big Stone Lake on Minnesota’s western border,” Ninneman added. “Big Stone Lake home owners and the downstream Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge could be severely affected in times of drought and low water flows.” South Dakota’s Governor Rounds has rejected pleas by the Minnesota DNR and the Minnesota River Joint Powers Board to reconvene the Boundary Waters Commission to discuss the proposed Big Stone II water draw down issue. Minnesota River advocates say it is now time to decisively confront South Dakota in order to avoid setting a precedent for future water disputes. “There are several courses of action that can be pursued if the state makes this a priority,” stated Lori Nelson, Executive Director of the Friends of the Minnesota Valley based in Bloomington. “The Governor’s office, the Attorney General and the DNR all have points of leverage that can be employed. Minnesota is not at South Dakota’s mercy. We have just as much, if not more leverage. Our government has an obligation to the people of Minnesota to act.” More . . . The last time the American Rivers organization listed the Minnesota River as one of the nation’s 20 most threatened rivers was in 1995. Back then, the river was cited for being the most polluted tributary to the Mississippi River north of St. Louis. The river’s problems relating to sediment loading, excessive nutrient and raw sewage were highlighted and it spurred then Governor Arne Carlson into doing something about it. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the DNR and the Board of Soil and Water Resources have since spent 100s of millions of dollars on a focused river clean up. As a result, the Minnesota River was removed from the most threatened list in 1998. “We are proud to say that the Minnesota River is making a comeback,” Sparlin said. “For the first time in many years we now see walleye, sturgeon, white bass, American eel and even native paddlefish in this once polluted river. Sadly, however, the proposed Big Stone II plant could undo all this progress by drawing off water and by putting more mercury into river over the next 50 years.” The river advocacy organizations say that the State of Minnesota will have no jurisdiction to enforce mercury emissions from the plant because it will be located in South Dakota. Much of the Upper Minnesota River watershed is considered impaired by mercury pollution according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. “Mercury is a known neuro toxin that accumulates in the environment and does not go away,” stated Sparlin. “To allow more than 4,000 pounds of mercury to be emitted over the next 50 years downwind and downstream on the prevailing winds over the Minnesota River Valley is unconscionable.” Rep. Aaron Peterson of Minnesota House of Representatives District 20A joined the river organizations in calling for the development of Minnesota based, community owned, distributed renewable energy development to provide the energy that would have been provided by the Big Stone II plant. Representatives Kate Knuth, Rep. Frank Moe and Rep. Rick Hansen joined Peterson in supporting the grassroots organizations at the press conference. “Big Stone II is at odds with current State of Minnesota Energy Policies developed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor,” Peterson said. “Home grown renewable energy development is more secure, creates more jobs and does not require massive draw downs of precious public water resources, nor does it pollute the environment with mercury and carbon emissions.” The fate of the proposed Big Stone II plant hangs on an upcoming decision by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on whether or not to grant the Big Stone II partners the certificate of need required to construct transmission lines from the plant. The PUC is expected to meet in early May 2008 to make its ruling on the proposed Big Stone II project. For more information on the issue, contact Patrick Moore of Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) at 1-877-269-2873. CURE Conducts Ice Fishing Mercury Awareness Campaign on Lac qui Parle    It was the coldest day of the winter so far with 20 mile per hour winds creating minus 20 degree wind chill temps. The snow swirled around the temporary towns of ice houses on Lac qui Parle, occasionally blotting out the sun dogged sky with a blizzard of whiteness. Outfitted in bulky snowmobile suits two young women trudge up to the ice fishing houses and knock. Peering out the darkened shack, a male voice asks: “Yeah -- what do you want?” |
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"Hello we’re from CURE and we’re going around the lake today to let people know what we are finding out about mercury levels in Minnesota River fish. According to MN Department of Health data if seems that the closer you get to the Granite Falls Montevideo area, the mercury content in the fish rises dramatically. We think that this has something to do with the Big Stone I coal fired power plant up in Ortonville. There is going to be a hearing on January 10, 2008 to discuss the permitting of a new power plant that will sit along side the old one. Together, the two plants would continue to emit mercury downwind and downstream for at least the next 50 years.” |
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“Yeah, I already know,” one fisherman responds. “I don’t eat the fish I
catch from here and I don’t let my wife eat it
either.” “You
want us to sign a petition?” another fisherman asks. “No,
we want you to tell your friends about it and see if they’ll
come to the meeting on January 10th at the Ortonville Community Center to tell the judge what coal fired power
is doing to our river environment.” “Good luck and thanks for the information — stay warm out there!” 
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| Successful River Clean Up Signals the End of an Era
More than 25 volunteers gathered last weekend near the Minnesota River public water access known as Prien’s Landing to remove the some of the last vestiges of a 30 year old dump site in the Minnesota River floodplain near Montevideo, MN. During the course of the 5 hour clean up, more than 21 tires were collected along with two flatbeds of salvaged scrap metal and a big dumpster full of mixed solid waste. Volunteers also removed a stove, a dishwasher, two ancient commercial kitchen coolers, two car batteries and two TVs from the riverbank.
It was the 5th time that the property had been the focus of a clean up effort – most of the junk had been deposited more than 20 years ago by the former (now deceased) landowner. Previous clean ups in the 1990’s involved National Guard and Scout troops that collected more than 6 flatbed loads of scrap metal, hundreds of tires, batteries and mixed solid waste.
“I think we have finally gotten rid of most of the visible trash from this massive dumping ground,” stated CURE (Clean Up the River Environment) Executive Director Patrick Moore. “It took more than a decade as we picked away at it through the years, but now it is mostly done.”
According to Moore, the clean up of the Prien’s Landing Site signals the end of an era of sorts for dumping in the Minnesota River. “It used to be that people did not respect the river and they used it as a dumping ground and as a drainage ditch and an open sewer for more than 70 years,” Moore explained. “Now as a society we are coming to understand the immense importance of clean water and we are restoring our pride and sense of place in the river that bears our state’s name.”
CURE has organized Annual River clean ups for the past 16 years at illegal dump sites on the Chippewa River near Benson and Montevideo and along the Minnesota River near Granite Falls and Wegdahl in addition to the Montevideo River Road clean ups. According to Moore, the dump sites are getting harder to find. “We are always interested in hearing from landowners and people who fish and boat on the river about dump sites we can tackle,” Moore said. “We’ll keep picking away at them until they are all cleaned up – our emerging recreation economy along the river depends on it.”
This Fall’s clean up was orchestrated by CURE organizing intern Brooke Herling. Herling is a student at Minnesota West Technical College enrolled in the Renewable Energy Technology program. Herling was successful in bringing together people from all walks of life to participate in the clean up, including students and teachers from the Montevideo High School as well as the Minnesota West Campus, area churches and community civic clubs. CURE member Mark Voorhees (originally from Appleton now living in the Twin Cities) drove all the way out from Eagan, Minnesota to participate in the event.
A key player in last weekend’s clean up was Steve Birkey who runs a scrap metal recycling business in Montevideo. Birkey brought his skid loader with a “cherry picker” down to the clean up which allowed volunteers to extract silt laden appliances from the river bank that had been stuck for decades. Most of the appliances were too rusted and full of potentially hazardous material to be of any value for scrap metal, but now the eyesores have been removed.
CURE will incur several hundred dollars in expenses for paying to have the appliances recycled and the mixed solid waste removed. Anyone interested in helping to defray this expense can send a contribution to the CURE River Clean up Fund: 114 1st Street West, Montevideo, MN 56265.
From Right to left - Josh Preston, Cassie DeGeest, Chris Suter, Hannah Hein, Jordan Montgomery, Star Graubow, Joe Hauger, Steve Birkey, Tom Pauling, Franz Richter, Dakota Frazier, Brooke Herling, Butch Halterman, Barry Brace, Dan Kurkiewicz and Jianhua Qian. Martin Moore is in the front. CURE Conducts Energy History Interview Project
“Our Self Reliant Heritage” a collection of stories about renewable energy pioneers, entrepreneurs and the agrarian culture of the Upper Minnesota River Watershed has been released by Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) as a two CD set of audio interviews now available to the general public. The interview project was funded and conducted in collaboration with the Southwest Initiative Foundation in advance of the recently held Youth Energy Summit (YES) held at the Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center near New London /Spicer.
The interviews were conducted by local college age and high school students who fanned out across the region in search of stories relating to how individuals and communities in the region have worked to develop self reliant energy and food production systems in the past. Students learned about the history of hydropower on the Minnesota River, the development of the first Rural Electric Cooperative in the nation, the coming of electricity to rural areas through the Rural Electrification Administration and the development of farmer owned ethanol and wind projects in the region. They also interviewed a restaurant owner who is using the used fryer oil from his business to power his Volkswagen Rabbit and a farmer who is diversifying his corn and soybean crop base to include a commercial grape growing operation.
Interviewees included Granite Falls Mayor David Smiglewski, Granite Falls Restaurateur John Berends, farmers Julie Oftedahl Volstad, Spencer Kvam (both of Granite Falls), Elsie Holtan (Montevideo), Tom Clemen (Murdock), James Falk (Murdock) and Jon Roisen (Dawson).
“The goal of the project is to connect the up and coming generation with the accomplishments and success stories of our forbearers,” stated CURE Board Chair Donna Krueger, resident of Stony Run Township, which lies just west and north of the City of Granite Falls. “We have an incredible self-reliant history to build on here as we move toward a more community based, renewable energy future.”
The two CD set of audio interviews was distributed to the teams of students from area schools who participated in the Youth Energy Summit. The interviews are also available to the public for a nominal fee to cover duplication, packaging and mailing costs. For more information or to order your set of interviews call CURE toll free at 1-877-269-2873. CURE Advocates for Clean Water & Renewable Energy at the Capitol  More than 43 CURE members made a trip to the State Capitol recently to advocate for Clean Energy and to say "no" to more Coal fired power plants like the proposed Big Stone II power plant. CURE met with Rep. Aaron Peterson, Lyle Koenen and Senator Gary Kubly to express their support for the Global Warming Mitigation Act, Clean Water Legacy Funding and a Constitutional Amendment to fund conservation projects as part of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership's Protect Our Great Outdoors Rally Day at the Capitol. |
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