By Matt McKinney

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Following a tense day of hearings over a proposed Afton wastewater treatment plant, the Citizens’ Board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency made its last vote, eliminating itself after 48 years of oversight of the state’s environmental agency.

The decision was ordered by the Legislature earlier this month in a surprise move following the Citizens’ Board’s challenge of a massive dairy operation proposed for west-central Minnesota.

Board members expressed disappointment and sadness with the decision, saying they had fulfilled an important mandate for residents as they exercised broad authority over the Pollution Control Agency on everything from proposed tire-burning plants to local infrastructure issues like the one debated Tuesday.

“The elimination of our Citizens’ Board should be an affront to our democratic values in Minnesota, and the irony is that it was decided in the closed conference committee by a few people under duress, the very definition of undemocratic means,” said Board Member Pakou Hang, who gave an emotional address shortly before the board’s final vote.

The board of eight unpaid citizens, appointed by the governor and chaired by MPCA commissioner John Linc Stine, had veto power over the agency’s decisions. That unusual power was cited earlier this year by House Speaker Kurt Daudt as the reason for its demise.

Supporters of the board have framed the action differently, saying special interests had effectively killed the board because it stood in their way.

“It’s a disgraceful decision, absolutely un-Minnesotan,” said Don Arnosti, conservation program director of the Minnesota chapter of the Izaak Walton League.

About 100 people, including former Gov. Wendell Anderson and several state senators and representatives, rallied Tuesday morning on the steps of the PCA in St. Paul to decry the board’s death.