Resolution on Clean Water

At our last meeting, the Nicollet County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution in regard to the renewal of the Federal Clean Water Act. It is up for renewal by Congress this year. We all are glad that it was passed 30 years ago and great strides have been made in the way of making our waters purer.
This renewal effort is suggesting the same language as the previous act, with one change. The previous act used the words “navigable waters” in regard to jurisdiction by the Army Corps of Engineers. The new language being suggested changes the words “navigable waters” and uses the term “waters of the United States”. The National Association of Counties, the Minnesota Association of Counties, and Nicollet County feel that this change will broaden the scope of jurisdiction of the Army Corps and they will want to be consulted every time we clean a ditch or build a road that goes through a wet meadow or the like. The new language even goes so far as to allow jurisdiction of playa lakes. Don’t know what they are? A playa lake is a dessert basin that becomes a lake, only after a heavy rainfall. The Nicollet County Board’s resolution asked our Congressional representatives to pass the legislation and leave the terminology as it has been in the past. end