Committee advances bill to require scuba training, safety checks for lake weed-removal work

The Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee on the morning moved House File 1355, as amended, to the general register after testimony from state agencies and family members of two young men who died while performing aquatic weed-removal work.

The bill would add a new Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) provision regulating commercial diving operations used in aquatic plant control and would require the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to check for scuba use and related safety documentation before issuing a commercial mechanical control permit for aquatic plant work.

The DNR’s John Waters, government relations unit supervisor, told the committee the bill requires the DNR, before issuing a commercial mechanical control permit, to confirm whether companies are using scuba equipment and to require a hazard information sheet that the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) will provide. Waters also said the bill would require proof of a third-party, on-site hazard survey completed within the prior year by a qualified safety professional.

Josiah Moore, legislative director at the Department of…