HF 3275

as introduced - 82nd Legislature (2001 - 2002) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to the environment; encouraging citizen water 
  1.3             quality monitoring; amending Minnesota Statutes 2000, 
  1.4             section 115.061. 
  1.5   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.6      Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 2000, section 115.061, is 
  1.7   amended to read: 
  1.8      115.061 [DUTY TO NOTIFY AND AVOID WATER POLLUTION.] 
  1.9      Subdivision 1.  [NOTIFICATION OF POLLUTION.] (a) Except as 
  1.10  provided in paragraph (b), it is the duty of every person to 
  1.11  notify the agency immediately of the discharge, accidental or 
  1.12  otherwise, of any substance or material under its control which, 
  1.13  if not recovered, may cause pollution of waters of the state, 
  1.14  and the responsible person shall recover as rapidly and as 
  1.15  thoroughly as possible such substance or material and take 
  1.16  immediately such other action as may be reasonably possible to 
  1.17  minimize or abate pollution of waters of the state caused 
  1.18  thereby.  
  1.19     (b) Notification is not required under paragraph (a) for a 
  1.20  discharge of five gallons or less of petroleum, as defined in 
  1.21  section 115C.02, subdivision 10.  This paragraph does not affect 
  1.22  the other requirements of paragraph (a). 
  1.23     Subd. 2.  [CITIZEN MONITORING.] The agency shall encourage 
  1.24  citizen monitoring of water quality for waters of the state by: 
  1.25     (1) providing technical assistance, when available, to 
  2.1   local group efforts doing the monitoring; 
  2.2      (2) stating clear guidelines for acceptable monitoring data 
  2.3   and practices, and making the guidelines available to citizens; 
  2.4      (3) regularly inviting water organizations, public and 
  2.5   private, to help in recommending the guidelines in clause (2) 
  2.6   and seeking ways to improve water quality monitoring that will 
  2.7   be fully considered by the agency; 
  2.8      (4) integrating citizens monitoring data into the available 
  2.9   agency monitoring programs to assess water quality; and 
  2.10     (5) seeking funds, public and private, to improve water 
  2.11  quality monitoring and to add various waters of the state for 
  2.12  regular monitoring efforts. 
  2.13  The agency monitoring activity for water quality that is either 
  2.14  fully or partially assessed in the state, and acceptable 
  2.15  guidelines and practices, must be maintained and updated 
  2.16  electronically on its Web site.