To the Minnesota Department of Agriculture:

Minnesota’s Groundwater Protection Rule is inadequate to fulfill its intended purpose of protecting our groundwater from nitrate pollution, especially in the karst areas of southeast Minnesota and other Vulnerable Groundwater Areas.

While the current Rule for commercial fertilizer management assesses the risk of contamination based on soils and geology, it has been in effect for over six years without widespread, meaningful improvement in nitrate levels. The Rule must be revised to better protect public health and our fragile aquatic ecosystems.

The Groundwater Protection Rule is currently insufficient due to three major shortcomings:

• Growing Season Oversight: Part 1 of the Rule only bans fertilizer application in the fall or on frozen soils – practices most farmers already avoid. It must be expanded to address fertilizer use during the growing season. All producers in vulnerable areas should follow common-sense practices, including University of Minnesota recommended application rates, strict record-keeping for all nitrogen sources, and observing setbacks from sensitive features like sinkholes and wells.
• Private Well Protection: Part 2 of the Rule currently only applies to the 2% of Vulnerable Groundwater Areas located around community wells (DWSMAs). This fails to protect citizens relying on private wells. Part 2 should be expanded to apply to the entirety of any township where testing shows nitrate levels above 10 mg/L.
• Delayed Action: Part 2 allows the MDA to add regulations where pollution isn’t improving, but it includes unnecessarily long delays. The MDA should remove these self-imposed barriers and accelerate the mandatory adoption of Alternative Management Practices (AMPs), such as cover crops and perennials, while enforcing baseline Best Management Practices.

Supporting evidence for these points can be found in the materials submitted by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

I request that the MDA open a formal rulemaking process to revise the Groundwater Protection Rule to ensure it is strong enough to protect Minnesota’s drinking water, groundwater, and trout streams.