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w „.: Brad Moore, the commissioner of the Minnesota ' ~~~ v Pollution Control Agency and a former assistant commissioner in the Department of Natural "~ ~- ^ '~ ~ 4y ,~~~~ Resources, announced in late November that he - "~ - was leaving state government to take a job with a `"~`' ` t private engineering firm. ~.. ~ '~ ~ ~ .1~ As PCA commissioner since August 2006, ~`` Moore has directed many Minnesota water-quality programs, especially the effort to test and clean up pollution in surface waters. In an interview with the ~' " Freshwater Society, Moore talked about challenges facing the state's lakes and streams. The transcript of the interview follows: A. I'll be working on government relations/public affairs issues, helping clients negotiate the various regulatory and public processes. I think a couple things are key: These are both public and private clients, much of the work will be outside of Minnesota and I won't be in front of the Pollution Control Board. A. Both agencies have many dedicated staff that are devoted public servants in their fields and have some of the best knowledge in this state or nation. By and large, people are getting a quality product from these agencies. I think the other thing people don t understand about state agencies is that, while they want the agencies to be more advocates, the agencies really are execu- tive branch. Their role is to implement the laws passed by the Legislature. That's why advocacy groups on all sides are needed in the process. s A. Minnesota is a water-rich state- 90,000-plus miles of streams, 12,000 to 13,000 lakes. We have some of the best monitoring and Total Maximum Daily Load programs in the nation. The only other state that comes close is Ohio. When I talked to my counterpart commissioners across the nation, they couldn't believe how much money we have to do water quality work. Secondly, we are leading the nation in a number of areas. For example, perfluo- rinated compounds, PFCs, research. We have the nation s first standard for aceto- chlor and some of these other chemicals. In many of these areas, we are nation- leading. The Lake Pepin Total Maximum Daily Load study is one of the largest TMDLs being done in the nation. We are considered by the EPA as a leader. I think some of the challenges are: We have so much water and so many of our waters are impaired. We have a huge job to do in terms of clean-up, and we also have a huge job to do in protect- ing the waters that areri t impaired. It's daunting. t: A. First of all, when you look at the percentage of waters that are polluted in Minnesota we're about the national average. The challenge is we have so much water. If you. look at the past in terms of the amount of monitoring in TMDL studies, you need a decade to figure out the problem. Because the Legislature and the governor's office Last session gave us a large amount of money to do a better job of implement- ing, we are poised to be on, and we are today on, a 10-year cycle to assess every water body. I'm not going to say that everything's rosy, but if you look where we were five years ago compared to today, we're on a good trajectory. This upcoming budget session we will be able to demonstrate to the Legislature that we spent that money well and did the work we said we would do. I'm pretty proud of that. ~r ed - d- ar~ey? A. That's a decision for the Legisla- ture. For me, what I think has to happen with that money is we need to target it in a manner that shows results. What I mean by that is: Rather than spread it all over the state, let's make sure we put enough into specific watersheds so we can show in a matter of a fev,~ years that, yes, water quality has improved and we have lasting change. My concern~is that, given the current budget deficit, there will be so many people looking for this money that it will get parceled out in a way that's too diffuse to get good results. ~a - F/-~CETS December 2fl08