The public is invited to attend a watershed wide, citizen–led conversation on water quality issues facing the Straight, Cannon, Le Sueur and Mississippi Rivers to be held on Thursday February 2nd at the Holiday Inn & Suites, 2365 43rd St NW, Owatonna, MN from 5 to 8:30 p.m. The event is free, but advanced registration is required.
The conversation is being sponsored by a wide range of grassroots citizen groups, farm groups, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and InCommons. The purpose of the meeting is to explore how citizens, businesses and government can share leadership by collaborating to restore water quality in the four river systems.
The meeting will feature a meal and round table discussions facilitated by InCommons – a community-based initiative that connects Minnesotans to share tools, knowledge and resources to address complicated problems.
The Owatonna dialogue will be patterned after a similar round table discussion held in Mankato on December 6, 2011, More than 130 people attended the discussion that featured farmers, environmental advocates, government agency workers and recreational users of the river all sitting at the same table to discuss the issues and seek common ground.
The public is invited and welcome to attend. Farmers and landowners are especially encouraged to participate. To register for the meal and dialogue or for more information, call 1-877-269-2873 by January 25, 2012. Seating is available for 80 people on a first come, first served basis. Organizers are expecting a full house, so don’t delay.
As a former water quality environmentalist for Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes, during the nineties, I found there are two and only two ways prevent future pollution.
The first one involves suing the heck out of the polluters and winning legal battles galore. The second is to find ways for the polluters to make money off their newly found non polluting ways. Such as selling or reusing manure instead of dumping it, finding products that are possible more expensive up front, but are cheaper to store or trash.
Good luck!