A bill that would strengthen wetlands protection passed the House late Tuesday night in a key victory for the environment.
Rep. Dennis Ozment, a Rosemount Republican, teamed with Rep. Rick Hansen, a DFLer from South St. Paul, to overcome well-funded and persistent opposition from the counties and local government and secure an 84-50 victory against an amendment by Rep. Tom Hackbarth, a Cedar Republican.
The debate centered on a section of the omnibus environment bill that called for strengthening the 1991 wetlands protection law. Previously, landowners could fill or drain smaller wetlands without having to replace the wetland elsewhere or mitigate the damage in some other way. Under the changes authored by Hansen and approved by the House vote, the size of the wetlands receiving the general "de minimis exemption" is cut in half for areas outside Northern Minnesota. In addition, almost all sensitive shoreland wetlands must be mitigated under the bill approved Tuesday.
"This is a major victory and very gratifying,'' said Allison Wolf, lobbyist for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. "Dennis Ozment made a true statesman's speech. He brought a lot of Republicans with him. He's the father of many of our wetlands protections."
Together, Reps. Ozment and Hansen worked hard to bring these environmental protections through multiple hearings and negotiations, convincing legislators from both sides of the aisle and around the state to support this important bill.
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The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy had been pushing an even stronger bill to correct problems in the 1991 law. That law established a no-net loss of wetlands standard, but a study done by MCEA showed that weaknesses or compromises in the law were allowing our wetlands to continue to decline faster than they were being replaced.
Wetlands are valuable habitat for wildlife, especially ducks. They also filter out pollutants before the water flows into a river, lake or an underground aquifer.
Both the state's Board of Water and Soil Resources and Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Clean Water Cabinet supported the change that passed the House.
The omnibus bill, authored by Minneapolis DFLer Jean Wagenius, will go to conference committee with the omnibus bill authored by Sen. Ellen Anderson, a St. Paul DFLer. The senate version does not contain the wetlands protection provision.
