Senate committee advances bill to protect wild rice waters from pesticide impacts

Senate File 3915, a measure to add protections for waters that support wild rice, drew testimony and debate April 8 before the Minnesota Senate Veterans, Broadband and Rural Development Committee.

Senator Kunish, the bill’s author, said the measure clarifies the definition of "wild rice water," requires the Department of Agriculture to consider wild rice in pesticide management plans, and directs the commissioner to coordinate with Minnesota tribal governments and report to the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. "This bill is a starting point to ensure that waters across our state remain pure enough to support this plant," Kunish said.

Dustin Roy, divisional director of White Earth Natural Resources, told the committee that for the Ojibwe people "wild rice or manoomin is a relative. It is why our ancestors came to this region. It is our identity, our livelihood, and our traditional food source." Roy recounted a 2016–2021 permitting period in which 17 Minnesota DNR aquatic-plant permits were issued in areas where wild rice was present and said one permit on Macranie Lake allowed chemical removal that later decimated restored wild-rice beds.

Steve White, elected council member for the Leech Lake Band (District 2), said wild rice has sustained families and local economies. He told lawmakers that in 2024 the band purchased about 142,000 pounds of green rice from harvesters; harvest totals were described as roughly double the prior year in the most recent season, with purchases approaching 300,000 pounds and about $1,500,000 returned to the local economy.

Environmental advocates backed the bill. Lucas Rhodes of the NRDC Action Fund cited the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s 2024 water-quality monitoring, saying it detected 81 pesticides in surface waters and drawing attention to neonicotinoid insecticides. Rhodes said neonicotinoids are widely used and noted that MDA detected clothianidin in a large share of surface-water samples; he urged limiting unnecessary uses to reduce contamination of waters that can be absorbed by plants.

Joshua Stamper, division director for Pesticide and Fertilizer Management at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, told the committee that MDA has monitored wild-rice waters since 1991. "We currently monitor 58 different river locations that are wild-rice producing waters, about 150 lake locations and 12 wetlands from watersheds that contain wild rice," Stamper said. He added the agency does not enforce state law on reservations (tribal sovereignty) and works through consultation and cooperative agreements when appropriate.

Committee members pressed the author on scope and specificity. Several senators asked which pesticides the bill targets and how far upstream or downstream monitoring and response could extend. Senator Kunish said the bill tasks the commissioner with using best practices to investigate and monitor detections, adds wild rice considerations to existing pesticide statutes and training, and requires coordination with tribes.

The committee adopted the bill’s A1 amendment — which clarified the wild rice water definition and removed jurisdictional language after MDA feedback — and laid Senate File 3915 over for possible inclusion.

What happens next: The committee did not vote to pass the bill to the floor; it was laid over for possible inclusion pending further review and consultation.