MORRIS, Minn. – Gov. Mark Dayton promised Friday to fight efforts at the Legislature to weaken or delay his signature 2015 water quality initiative, the nation's first law requiring agricultural landowners to install and maintain vegetation buffers near rivers and streams to protect against farm runoff.
"I compromised on this bill, and I'm not going to compromise on it anymore," he told a crowd gathered at the University of Minnesota, Morris, for a "water summit" convened by his administration.
"I'm not going to rescind it, water it down, delay its implementation," Dayton said, anticipating a push by the newly Republican Legislature for changes to a law many farmers say is burdensome and violates their property rights.
One measure introduced recently by a group of House Republicans would repeal the entire law.
Dayton's tough tone illustrates the political and economic challenges in trying to win lasting legislative victories on the clean water front, which has become one of the DFL governor's top priorities in recent years. Minnesota's agricultural and business communities are embroiled in a contentious debate with environmental and clean-water advocacy groups over the responsibilities for and costs of water pollution.
Passed into law in 2015 after extensive negotiations with the GOP-led House and DFL-controlled Senate, the buffer law was heralded by environmental groups but opposed by leading farm groups.
It was designed to strengthen existing law, which gives counties authority to require 16.5-foot buffers on drainage ditches and 50-foot buffers on streams, lakes and wetlands. Those rules were confusing and rarely enforced, and many buffers are missing. Dayton's law clarified the rules and added financial penalties.
But for Dayton and his fellow DFLers in rural Minnesota, the law came with political consequences. Though many factors contributed, the DFL lost badly in greater Minnesota in the November election.
