(a) The responsibility for the protection of groundwater in Minnesota is vested in a multiagency approach to management. The following is a list of agencies and the groundwater protection areas for which the agencies are primarily responsible; the list is not intended to restrict the areas of responsibility to only those specified:
(1) Environmental Quality Board: coordination of state groundwater protection programs;
(2) Pollution Control Agency: water quality monitoring and reporting and the development of best management practices and regulatory mechanisms for protection of groundwater from nonagricultural chemical contaminants;
(3) Department of Agriculture: sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, water quality monitoring, and the development of best management practices and regulatory mechanisms for protection of groundwater from agricultural chemical contaminants;
(4) Board of Water and Soil Resources: reporting on groundwater education and outreach with local government officials, local water planning and management, and local cost share programs;
(5) Department of Natural Resources: water quantity monitoring and regulation, sensitivity mapping, and development of a plan for the use of integrated pest management and sustainable agriculture on state-owned lands; and
(6) Department of Health: regulation of wells and borings, and the development of health risk limits under section 103H.201.
(b) The Environmental Quality Board shall prepare a report on policy issues related to its responsibilities listed in paragraph (a), and include these reports with the assessments in section 103A.43 and the "Minnesota Water Plan" in section 103B.151.
History:1994 c 557 s 11; 2008 c 363 art 5 s 14