ST. PAUL – If you haul pigs and choose to wash your truck after the job is complete, should the area be considered a swine basin?
Believe it or not, this potential in state law exists, and State Representative Joe Schomacker (R-Luverne) is trying to rectify that.
“Constituents notified me that the runoff created after washing their truck is regulated as a swine basin for hogs,” Schomacker said. “Common sense tells you it’s a truck wash, so I’m just trying to make a simple clarification.”
Under current law, until July 1, 2022, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and county boards generally cannot permit the construction of a new open-air swine basin. It also defines “private truck wash” for purposes of a similar law as “a truck washing facility owned or leased, operated, and used only by a feedlot operator to wash trucks owned or leased by the feedlot operator and used to transport animals or supplies to and from the feedlot.”
Schomacker’s bill would clarify that the prohibition does not apply to a basin used solely to hold wastewater from a truck-washing facility.
“I’ve been working with the MPCA on this, and we have a conclusion that allows truck washes to be regulated as such,” Schomacker said. “This legislation will reduce duplicity in our laws, provide safer conditions for hauling, and make life less complicated for those hauling pigs.”