People, ourselves included, often forget just how successful the environmental movement in general, and Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy in particular, has been.

The cleaner water we now take for granted is the new baseline. The young never knew anything else and the older folks have forgotten how bad it used to be. So it was with interest that we read a piece in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Volunteer publication from last May-June that reminded everyone about the bad old days.

In his story, “Paradise Found,” Michael A. Kallok wrote the following, talking first with well-known fishing guide, Dick Grzywinski.
Grzywinski is a familiar face at walleye factories like Mille Lacs and Winnibigoshish, but today he chases big walleyes closer to home. "If I'm going to go after a trophy walleye, I wouldn't go north," Grzywinski says. "I'd take the metro over any place in Minnesota. If you want to catch a big walleye in a hurry, you can do it right in town." His favorite spot is Pool 2, a 35-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between the Ford Dam in St. Paul and Lock and Dam 2 in Hastings.
Had it not been for the federal Clean Water Act of 1972, there would be little reason to wet a line in the metro's portion of the Mississippi, according to Dirk Peterson, DNR metro-area fisheries manager.
"In the 1960s our nets didn't fill up with anything but toilet paper; now they just fill up with large walleye," Peterson says of Pool 2.
Prior to the Clean Water Act, storm water and wastewater were handled together. When large rain events occurred, capacity at treatment plants was overtopped, leading to the frequent discharge of raw sewage into the river. The resulting high levels of organic material often depleted dissolved oxygen levels in the river to zero, making aquatic life impossible.
Separate handling of storm water and wastewater, as required by the act, has led to the recovery of large rivers in the metro, according to Peterson. "At the Pig's Eye wastewater treatment plant, they discharge water that is cleaner than the river," he says.
It’s a good reminder, as we prepare to take on issues ranging from a federal global warming pollution law to a state bonding bill and round two of dispersing the money from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Constitutional Amendment that MCEA is always a strong force in trying to make our environment cleaner and healthier.

It’s also a good reminder that the improvements we enjoy today resulted because the environmentalists of 30 and 40  years ago were able to overcome the self-serving objections of business interests who claimed any changes would cripple industry.They were wrong and  they have reaped the benefits, as have the rest of us, of  cleaner  water and cleaner air.