Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake)
The Minnesota Senate said “no” today to delaying implementation of the state’s agriculture buffer law for five years, even as it approved clarifications to the law passed last year. Elbow Lake Republican Torrey Westrom argued for the postponement, saying landowners, farmers and local governments would then have more time to “sort this out and work it out. We don’t even have all the maps out.” But Clearbrook Democrat Rod Skoe says because it’s a water quality improvement measure, delaying “is not the direction we want to go.” The law’s objective is to limit runoff into streams and lakes by putting “buffer strips” around certain agricultural and other land.