Candidate's View: Consider all issues through a green lens

“We see what looks like disaster looming and don’t even talk about it, because the politics of climate change are inconvenient. Future generations will curse our silence.”- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group My father built our brick house in eastern Duluth where I grew up with my five younger siblings. I raised four daughters in the same house with their father during a 20-year marriage. I went back to school and earned my bachelor’s degree in geology-land use planning with a biology minor from the University of Minnesota Duluth. More recently, I studied Geographic Information Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and became certified as a home energy auditor. Unable to find environmental employment in middle age, I remain underemployed in dental health care. So, I worked to gather household data for the 2010 U.S. Census and did field work for the St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District. I currently am a stream monitor for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, focused on the Chester and Tischer, both trout streams.
With your support, I would like to continue my commitment to public service as commissioner of the St. Louis County Board’s District 2 in eastern Duluth.St. Louis County is the largest land mass county in Minnesota and is water-rich. The many lakes, streams and wetlands provide habitat and quality of life for county residents. If “water is the new oil,” as some claim, we are indeed fortunate. With that comes the responsibility to protect these natural resources for generations to come. I don’t think we are fulfilling our obligation. The St. Louis River Estuary is an Environmental Protection Agency-designated “Area of Concern” for toxic pollution, and trout streams have become impaired by E. coli. We have neglected to establish total maximum daily loads of pollution allowed so limits could be enforced for water quality for our streams. No trout can survive the electrical conductivity created from road salt washed into stormwater flow which empties to urban streams.The loss of native wetlands goes on under the Minnesota Wetlands Conservation Act, which allows replacement far from the water bodies to which the natural wetlands hydrologically were connected. The loss of water quality is a result.And now climate change is upon us. The U.S. military has stated it is the most serious threat to national security. Icecap and permafrost melting is raising sea levels to cover lands of lower elevation. Heat advisories and severe drought will increase. In other areas, more frequent and severe precipitation events will result in violent storms with localized flooding.The flood of 2012 in Duluth and in the Duluth area made paramount the resiliency of public works infrastructure. The windstorm this summer hit home and damaged properties for residents of District 2.The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together. We are in this together. And I am the only candidate at the local level this election who will look at pertinent issues through a green lens framed by climate change. Our survival depends upon it.I’ve dedicated myself to the common good by serving maximum terms on the Duluth Environmental Advisory Council and the Duluth Public Utilities Commission. Yet, I have been called “too political.”Rather, I think politicians are inconvenienced by my environmentalism. Linda Ross Sellner is a candidate for commissioner on the St. Louis County Board in eastern Duluth’s District 2. She wrote this at the request of the News Tribune Opinion page. About this raceSt. Louis County Board District 2 Commissioner Patrick Boyle is being challenged this fall by Linda Ross Sellner. District 2 includes eastern Duluth.Hear from the candidatesBoyle and Sellner participated in a News Tribune-sponsored candidate forum on Sept. 6. Video of the forum is posted here.Read the endorsementThe News Tribune offered its endorsement in this race, as determined by the editorial board, on Friday. Read it here.Deadline for lettersWeigh in on this race and others this fall by writing a letter to the editor. Letters endorsing or critical of specific candidates are limited to 200 words. Submissions can be directed to letters@duluthnews.com.Remember to voteElection Day is Nov. 8. “We see what looks like disaster looming and don’t even talk about it, because the politics of climate change are inconvenient. Future generations will curse our silence.”- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers GroupMy father built our brick house in eastern Duluth where I grew up with my five younger siblings. I raised four daughters in the same house with their father during a 20-year marriage. I went back to school and earned my bachelor’s degree in geology-land use planning with a biology minor from the University of Minnesota Duluth. More recently, I studied Geographic Information Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and became certified as a home energy auditor. Unable to find environmental employment in middle age, I remain underemployed in dental health care. So, I worked to gather household data for the 2010 U.S. Census and did field work for the St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District. I currently am a stream monitor for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, focused on the Chester and Tischer, both trout streams.
With your support, I would like to continue my commitment to public service as commissioner of the St. Louis County Board’s District 2 in eastern Duluth.St. Louis County is the largest land mass county in Minnesota and is water-rich. The many lakes, streams and wetlands provide habitat and quality of life for county residents. If “water is the new oil,” as some claim, we are indeed fortunate. With that comes the responsibility to protect these natural resources for generations to come. I don’t think we are fulfilling our obligation. The St. Louis River Estuary is an Environmental Protection Agency-designated “Area of Concern” for toxic pollution, and trout streams have become impaired by E. coli. We have neglected to establish total maximum daily loads of pollution allowed so limits could be enforced for water quality for our streams. No trout can survive the electrical conductivity created from road salt washed into stormwater flow which empties to urban streams.The loss of native wetlands goes on under the Minnesota Wetlands Conservation Act, which allows replacement far from the water bodies to which the natural wetlands hydrologically were connected. The loss of water quality is a result.And now climate change is upon us. The U.S. military has stated it is the most serious threat to national security. Icecap and permafrost melting is raising sea levels to cover lands of lower elevation. Heat advisories and severe drought will increase. In other areas, more frequent and severe precipitation events will result in violent storms with localized flooding.The flood of 2012 in Duluth and in the Duluth area made paramount the resiliency of public works infrastructure. The windstorm this summer hit home and damaged properties for residents of District 2.The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together. We are in this together. And I am the only candidate at the local level this election who will look at pertinent issues through a green lens framed by climate change. Our survival depends upon it.I’ve dedicated myself to the common good by serving maximum terms on the Duluth Environmental Advisory Council and the Duluth Public Utilities Commission. Yet, I have been called “too political.”Rather, I think politicians are inconvenienced by my environmentalism.Linda Ross Sellner is a candidate for commissioner on the St. Louis County Board in eastern Duluth’s District 2. She wrote this at the request of the News Tribune Opinion page.About this raceSt. Louis County Board District 2 Commissioner Patrick Boyle is being challenged this fall by Linda Ross Sellner. District 2 includes eastern Duluth.Hear from the candidatesBoyle and Sellner participated in a News Tribune-sponsored candidate forum on Sept. 6. Video of the forum is posted here.Read the endorsementThe News Tribune offered its endorsement in this race, as determined by the editorial board, on Friday. Read it here.Deadline for lettersWeigh in on this race and others this fall by writing a letter to the editor. Letters endorsing or critical of specific candidates are limited to 200 words. Submissions can be directed to letters@duluthnews.com.Remember to voteElection Day is Nov. 8.