News

MCGA raises Groundwater Protection Rule concerns in latest comment period

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) is committed to protecting drinking water in Minnesota. The vast majority of Minnesota farm families rely on groundwater as a source of drinking water. Since 2012, MCGA has invested nearly $6 million dollars to fund research and educate farmers on ways to improve the efficient use of fertilizer in their farming operations.

MCGA has actively been involved and advocating on behalf of Minnesota corn farmers as the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) has been considering and eventually proposing a rule that would prohibit fall application of nitrogen fertilizer in vulnerable groundwater areas and drinking water supply management areas (DWSMAs) with additional mitigation requirements in DWSMAs.

In July and August, MCGA provided verbal testimony during Administrative Law Judge hearings, organized members and individual farmers to testify and submitted detailed comments (and rebuttal comments) to the Office of Administrative Hearings on MDA’s proposed rule.

In our written comments and testimony, MCGA emphasized the steps Minnesota corn farmers have taken to more efficiently manage nitrogen applications by adopting new technology and practices, implementing best management practices and investing in nitrogen management research and education.

MDA is proposing to adopt the Groundwater Protection rule under their authority in the Groundwater Protection Act, which was passed in 1989. The law places a strong emphasis on voluntary actions and restricts MDA’s regulatory authority to circumstances where voluntary actions have been shown to be ineffective in achieving the goals of the Groundwater Protection Act. MCGA argued in our comments that MDA failed to satisfy the law’s requirements to show that voluntary implementation of BMPs has been ineffective and the proposed rule should not be adopted.

For example, the city of Perham worked with MDA and the agricultural community to promote specific voluntary practices to increase nitrogen use efficiency and the voluntary efforts were successful in lowering nitrate concentrations in drinking water. Voluntary efforts like this could be replicated in any of the 30 DWSMAs that show an elevated concentration of nitrates in public drinking water supplies.

Additionally, if it is determined that MDA should proceed with adoption of the proposed rule, MCGA made specific suggestions to modify the proposed rule to make it as workable as possible for Minnesota corn farmers. For example, we argued that local advisory teams should be comprised mostly of local farmers and professional crop advisors, legal protections for farmers should be increased and farmers should have the ability to provide information on local conditions and practices.

Now that the hearing record has closed, the Administrative Law Judge has 30 days to issue a report determining whether or not the proposed rule is reasonable and if the agency has meet the administrative requirements for the rule to be adopted. We expect the report to be issued in mid-September.

MCGA detailed comments (and rebuttal comments) in addition to background information on the proposed Groundwater Protection rule are available on our website at www.mncorn.org/nitrogenrule.

Did you like this article?

Share this post with your friends!