4 JULY 2018 • FOGHORN Environmental Protection is Essential to Our Business Over the past 34 years I have been fortunate enough to work on the Mississippi River and gain firsthand knowledge of this month’s editorial topic, environmental issues. In 1962 and 1963, industrial accidents spilled 3.5 million gallons of oil into the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. The oil covered the Mississippi River from St. Paul to Lake Pepin, creating an ecological disaster and a demand to control water pollution. On December 7, 1962, workers at the Richards Oil Plant in Savage, Minnesota forgot to open steam lines that heated oil pipes at the plant. On December 8, these pipes burst in low temperatures. They spilled one million gallons of petroleum into the Minnesota River. By January 24, 1963, the Minnesota Department of Health traced downstream oil back to Richards Oil. Employees claimed o n l y a s m a l l l e a k had occurred. The Department of Health requested that Richards Oil clean up the oil but could only take action if there was a public health emergency. Richards continued to drain oil until March. The only agency regulating water pollution was the Water Pollution Control Commission (WPCC). The WPCC was part of Public Health Services and could only act if a health emergency was created. Therefore, officials had to wait for permission from Honeymead and Richards to inspect their businesses. The sites of the spills could not be seen until April 6. On January 30, 1963, Senator Gordon Rosenmeier, a conservationist, introduced a bill giving the WPCC power to enforce rules preventing contamination of groundwa- ter. The Rosenmeier Act was passed on May 22. Public demand resulted in an amendment to prohibit the storage of waste where it could enter state waters. The Rosenmeier Act sparked additional legislation on environmental pro- tection. It also led to the creation of Pollution Control Agency in 1967. The Pollution ControlAgency was the first state group to consider pollution an ethical concern. Over the past 56 years great progress has been made in efforts to cleanup Minnesota’s waterways. Our efforts to help in this effort are focused on two long-running partnerships we have formed with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the National Park Service. For almost 30 years we have conducted annual river cleanups with the DNR and the Minnesota Conservation Corps through their Adopt a River program. Since 1989, volun- teers have removed over 6.5 million pounds of trash from thousands of miles of shoreline on Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and ponds. Since its beginning in 1996, the award-winning Big River Journey program has connected more than 65,000 students to the science and heritage of the Mississippi River and its watershed. Big River Journey includes 12 partner organizations which lead lessons during the trip, provide teacher training at workshops, or contrib- ute other resources. In 2001, Big River J o u r n e y r e c e i v e d t h e N a t i o n a l P a r k Foundation’s education- al partnership award. In 2007, Big River Journey won the Minnesota Environmental Initiative top award for environmental partnership. Students come to Big River Journey from many different backgrounds and with many different interests. All of the partners of Big River Journey represent the sig- nificance of the Mississippi River – and spark children’s interest through boats, birds, bugs, science, art, music, history and culture. With a bit of nurturing, that seed of interest grows into a lifelong relationship and results in everyday river stewardship by everyday people. I encourage you to take advantage of PVA’s Green WATERS Program, the checklist and best practices guide are available on the member side of the PVA website. Thank you. Gus Gaspardo President n LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Gus Gaspardo The Jonathan Padelford assists in the clean up of Minnesota waterways.