Minnesota Public Radio

MPR.0rg/90.1 FM

WASECA COUNTY — Gov. Mark Dayton sees the state law requiring 50-foot grassy buffer strips along most Minnesota water bodies as part of his environmental legacy. To Rollie Norton, though, it amounts to a government-mandated toothache.

Standing on a road near a drainage ditch on his land, the Waseca County farmer said the law requires him to add 17 feet to his existing buffer. He said he’s more aggrieved by the idea than the cost of taking land out of production, which he hasn’t calculated. But whatever the revenue loss, he and other farmers won’t see a dime in compensation

“It’s totally wrong for the state of Minnesota to demand that a 50-foot buffer be in place,” said Norton.

He and other farmers continue to question the state’s new public water buffer strip requirement as a November deadline approaches. Many say it’s an unfair. Some state legislators are pushing for repeal.

While Dayton has backed off on some parts of the plan, there’s no indication he plans to retreat from the law, setting the stage for problems later this year.

The intent of the buffer requirement is to create natural filters that trap soil and chemical pollutants in farm field runoff and prevent them from reaching rivers and lakes. Norton said he agrees with the goal, but bristles at the current plan.

For Norton, the program is an example of big government taking money out of his pocket and dictating what he can do with his property. The ditch on his land is classified by the state of Minnesota as public water, which means he must bring the buffer out to 50 feet.

Norton’s ditch was included among the state’s public waters in a process that dates back more than 30 years. In the 1980s state officials inventoried all water bodies in Minnesota. Some drainage ditches were classified as public waters, others were not. Back then, the designation was basically meaningless, but not now all ditches on the public waters list are required to have 50 foot buffers.

Norton, who wants his ditch removed from the public waters rolls, said the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources did little to inform farmers that the inventory process was taking place.