Now I'm really smoking some serious ... compost. I propose closing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Every employee. Every office. Every expenditure. Every regulation.
Instead, whatever permitting must continue now falls to the (new and improved) counties I first postulated. They will still be bound by Federal EPA regulation of course, which makes the MPCA redundant. But wait you say, every state is different and needs the fine tuning the state agencies provide. I say I've done that one better. Who better to get closer to the land and the people than a county agency?
I still envision a state level Department of Natural Resources (DNR), but stripped of any land use permitting. This will be a county issue from now on. Some counties may choose to be even more strict, but the duplication and inter-agency conflict and long delays and high costs must end. And so does the reign of bureaucratic busybodies like Ellen Anderson. The DNR can deal with large resources like the Mississippi River that flows through several counties.
The county boards would normally each hire their own "PCA" chief, at least partially funded by the state. I frankly don't even care if the total tab is a little higher than before. The breath of fresh air will be worth it.
Surely the PCA does far more than land use permitting? And don't we have to have some state standards that every county follows? For example, a huge swine operation in one county could easily lead to pollution (and preferably) in another county. How does the second county get some say in that sort of scenario?
Posted by: J. Ewing | Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 12:32 PM