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GOOD Good Morning. St. Paul,
Friday, June 29, 2001.
This morning at 1:40 AM the Coldwater law failed
to be amended. MnDOT attempted to repeal the original bill which
read: "Neither the state, nor a unit of metropolitan government, nor a
political subdivision of the state may take any action that may diminish
the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs."
The compromise language that the House-Senate
Transportation Conference Committee voted down would have gutted Rep.
Mark Gleason's (DFL-Richfield) bill. Any "temporary construction-phase
groundwater pumping" would be permitted. Only actions that "substantially"
diminish the natural flow of Coldwater Spring would be prohibited, and
only a watershed district or the state DNR could enforce the law. The
amendment would have been retroactive to May 16-- the day the law went
into effect.
Sen. Julie Sabo (DFL-Mpls) authored the bill
in the Senate and was appointed to the 10-member Transportation Conference
Committee as a substitute for Sen. Dean Johnson, absent with National
Guard duties. Sabo, in her first term and eight months pregnant, worked for
weeks on consensus-building language and then worked the committee.
At 3:45 AM Madame Chair Rep. Carol Molnau (R-Chaska)
"closed" the Transportation omnibus bill. Rep. Tom Workman (R-Chanhassen)
immediately asked to submit some new language for the Coldwater amendment.
The bill is closed Molnau said.
The committee adjourned from 4:45 AM this
morning to 9 AM so they can finish work on their Public Safety package
before an 11 AM roll call in the House and Senate. Threats to the
Coldwater legislation are probably over for this session but the
committee is not yet "recessed." However the legislature is
in fast track mode to tidy up all its business before the dread "state
shut down," July 1st.
Gleason and I went outside and discussed the
bizarre and mysteriously blessed voyage of the Camp Coldwater Springs
law. I say, the land speaks through us.
The law allows two local watershed districts
to enforce groundwater rules and agreements with MnDOT. MnDOT fears every
little water district or environmental group in Minnesota will go to court
to stop a construction project using the Coldwater precedent. The
special sacred history of the
Coldwater area has not been recognized by the state road-building department. Still the Coldwater campaign reflects a
new ethic. The rains and floods and expense of bottled drinking water
give perspective to living on the blue planet, the water planet, the third
planet from the Sun.
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