"Government exists to serve the people

[question everything]

and when people are, through no fault of their own especially, put in dire straits, that’s when our government needs to be as responsive as it can be,” Dayton said at a news conference Wednesday.

This is from a report in the strib that Dayton is considering a special legislative session to help the business around Lake Mille Lacs because of declining Walleye fishing.

http://www.startribune.com/special-legislative-session-likely-as-gov-mark-dayton-seeks-to-address-walleye-shortage-at-lake-mille-lacs/319505641/

Of course government exists to serve the people, all people. I am just curious on how many of these business owners share this general outlook.

And then there is an op-ed by Ron Way, who is a former official with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the U.S. Department of the Interior.:

Mille Lacs is a very large and shallow lake ringed by towns and resorts and cabins. Its watershed has been radically altered over time by development designed to generate revenue with little concern for how it might affect the lake. And so the “perfect storm” of abuse includes nutrient enrichment from lawn fertilizers as well as phosphorus and poisons from nearby row crops that cannot be effectively filtered because shore-land vegetation has been removed. There’s little to prevent nutrient overload that grows algae, which decays and consumes oxygen that sustains fish and their habitat. Leaky septic tanks and paved-over areas add still more nutrients.

http://www.startribune.com/counterpoint-if-it-can-happen-to-mille-lacs/319645691/

[the_sly_pig]

1. Same thing happened to White Bear Lake....

Shoreline homeowners are suing the DNR to get public funds to fill the lake with water, protecting their property values. I wonder how many of them vote the democratic ticket. Very few I imagine....

[Mister Ed]

2. I'd say it's not quite that cut-and-dried with White Bear Lake.

I'm an old White Bear boy, and know quite a few lakeshore homeowners personally. Many are Democrats. One who springs to mind is a very hardworking, dedicated local peace activist.

The lake is unlike other local lakes in that it's fed mostly by springs, and not runoff. I think the problem is that permits to draw water from the underlying aquifer have been handed out quite freely to developers over the years. In some cases, the water has even been used to create small artificial lakes to enhance new developments. As the water level in the aquifer has dropped, the springs that used to feed the lake may at times act as drains instead.

The result is that the lake's level has dropped about six feet. One family I know has seen their shoreline recede about 300 feet from where it once was. That represents quite a loss, both in quality of life and in property value.

If the DNR has allowed wealth to be transferred in this way from the lakeshore homeowners to the real-estate developers, then I think state aid may be appropriate, just as it is to the Mille Lacs resort owners.

[the_sly_pig]

3. It's a mistake to compare WBL to Mille Lacs....

As Mille Lacs has a variety of issues aside from lake levels. The issue is that the aquifer is being drained and Hugo swampland used to ooze south through Bald Eagle into WBL. Construction has siphoned the water no doubt. The issue is that thousands of people have had their property values decline over the last 15 years and they don't live on a lake. You don't see them suing the government to subsidize their property values. My neighbors across the street in WBL are "under water". Maybe they should have bought on the lake, eh?

[Mister Ed]

4. Much more to it than property values, I think.

White Bear Lake is a tremendous, publicly-held asset. It's by far the best recreational lake in the East Metro, and it's used freely by all. A public asset like that needs to be protected and preserved by our governmental agencies.

If it's at all practical and feasible to restore the lake at this point, then it should be restored. It's a very thorny problem, though, and I'm sure no one in government wants to own it. It may be that the only way to compel the government to address the issue is through a lawsuit. I just hope that doesn't mean that a lot of taxpayer dollars will be spent on legal costs when they could be spent serving the public.

Returning to the topic of property values, though: if your neighbors were literally under water - if, for example, their backyards were now partially flooded due to shortsighted and greedy governmental policies - then I very much hope they would sue for redress, rather than just accepting the loss.

[Snobblevitch]

5. Unless you have a degree and research

in the specific hydrology, comparing Mill Lacs to WBL is rediculous. What ARE yiur credentials?

[question everything]

6. There is a reason for the two links in the OP

These two stories were published in the strib and I posted them. With a few connecting words.