Water

The Trump administration is stripping clean water protections put in place by President Obama, and some in the industry worry that the regulatory changes will threaten their business.

Most of Friday's testimony strayed well beyond the narrow official scope of the proceedings into the broader questions of whether the project should even be built.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the project, which would replace an aging Enbridge Energy oil pipeline across northern Minnesota, in June 2018. But last summer, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the project first needed a revised environmental study in order to move forward. On Friday, the PUC will hear public comments on the new study.

3M has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in connection to discharges from a chemical plant in northern Alabama that may not have complied with permit requirements.

A new University of Minnesota study has found that when lakes were infested with the two common aquatic invasive species, young walleye didn’t grow as large as quickly, as they did before the invaders arrived.

In the third day of an unusual court hearing investigating alleged “procedural irregularities” in the way a mine permit was issued, former MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine testified his agency asked the EPA to delay submitting critical comments because his staff was stretched too thin responding to other comments.

The controversial rule change will dramatically reduce federal pollution protections for many streams and wetlands. Farmers and builders welcome that, but environmental groups plan to challenge it.

In the first day of what’s expected to be a five- to 10-day evidentiary hearing, a former EPA official said Minnesota officials asked the agency to withhold written comments that were critical of the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine. The MPCA says it followed the law.

Minneapolis has planted hundreds of trees in the past few years in an effort to green up downtown, but many aren't surviving past their first year. City staff have been trying to figure out why, and they think they might have found the culprit: salt.

State officials said that there's no immediate health threat to the public. But they are cautioning people to keep away from the foam and take precautions if they — or their pets — come into contact with it.