Senate committee advances bill tightening scuba-diving safety for lake weed removal after two deaths

The Minnesota Senate Labor Committee on Jan. 25 advanced Senate File 1346, the Brady Ani and Joseph Anderson Safety Act, which would impose new training, equipment and permitting requirements on companies that use scuba gear in aquatic plant management.

Senator Sandra Bolden, the bill's sponsor, told the committee the measure responds to two recent workplace deaths involving commercial lake-weed removal. "This bill would create new worker safety requirements for aquatic plant management with a focus on the work when scuba gear is in use," Senator Bolden said as she opened the hearing.

The bill would add new requirements in two areas: the Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) aquatic plant-management permitting process, and Minnesota's application of occupational-safety rules for commercial diving.

Under the DNR-related provisions, applicants for commercial mechanical control permits would have to disclose whether scuba equipment will be used. If so, the permit application must include a third-party on-site hazard survey performed within the prior year by a qualified safety professional (examples listed in the bill include a Department of Labor and Industry representative, a workers' compensation insurance underwriter, or an outside consultant). The measure would also bar the DNR commissioner from issuing or renewing a permit for applicants who have one or more willful OSHA scuba-related violations in the previous two years and would prevent a successor person from obtaining a permit where the prior operator had such violations. The committee was told those permit-related provisions would apply to permits or violations on or after Oct. 1, 2025.

On workplace rules, the bill would create a new section of Minnesota OSHA law that applies to employer-operated commercial diving using scuba apparatus. It would require that…