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It's an old argument with a new twist. Which is more important: economics or the environment? In Minnesota, the Pollution Control Agency is generally charged with protecting the state's natural resources. But when it comes to regulating chemicals used on farmland the Department of Agriculture is in charge. Today, in the third of our week-long series, a look at the effects of increasing irrigation in west central Minnesota.

The focus of concern is potato farming. About 10,000 acres of irrigated potatoes are grown in Ottertail County, most by one large corporation.

OTTERTAIL COUNTY BOASTS ABOUT 1,000 LAKES, and it's the water that draws tens of thousands of tourists, retirees, and potato farmers. Malcolm Bolton is a retired attorney who lives on the shore of West Battle Lake. Just across the road lies a large wetland, and up the hill is one of many irrigated fields in the area. Bolton uses the wetland as a very unscientific environmental reference point.

Bolton: We've noticed a dramatic decrease in the noise you hear from the wetlands at night, and that's in the last two or three years.

Bolton thinks farm chemicals are killing songbirds and frogs that frequent the marsh. So a couple of years ago, Malcolm Bolton and a few other local landowners began to look for information on the large-scale farming in their neighborhood. He's attended conferences on pesticides, gotten up at 4:00 am to watch airplanes apply chemicals, and badgered countless state employees. His conclusion? There is no state agency standing between agriculture and the environment.

Bolton: This is a citizen effort in lieu of those departments that are supposed to be protecting us, and frankly that makes me mad.

In Ottertail County, 10,000 acres of potatoes are grown with irrigation. Huge potato farms are, according to everyone, using accepted practices for chemical and fertilizer applications. Despite that, area residents have questions. They say they can't get any details about those farming practices. The largest potato farm, run by the R.D. Offut Company, did not respond to requests for an interview for this story.

Looking like a long, silver, rubber-tired centipede, an irrigator creeps across the field, spraying water from dozens of sprinkler heads. The sandy soil here in west central Minnesota is a blessing and a curse. It drains quickly, allowing better moisture control, and means better potatoes and more profit for the farmer. But that sandy soil also makes it easier for chemicals and fertilizer to get to the underground aquifers - often just a few feet below the surface.

Normally Malcolm Bolton, who lives a half mile from one of the huge potato fields, would take his concerns about pollution to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. But in this case, the state's primary environmental watchdog has no authority. Monitoring pollution from farm chemicals is up to the state Agriculture Department.

State Representative Willard Munger says that's wrong. Munger chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee. He says the Agriculture Department demanded oversight for aggregated chemicals when the state Groundwater Protection Act was passed.

Munger: They're responsible for monitoring because they demanded it be turned over to them. Stop and think a little bit. Why did they insist we take that monitoring and regulation away from pollution control and give it to agriculture? You don't have to think very hard to realize why they wanted that done. It's a conflict of interest.

Munger says the Agriculture Department is an advocate for farming and unlikely to put the environment before farm profits.

Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson says his department can promote and regulate farming. He says the real conflict is between farmers and the rural residents who don't really understand farming.

Hugoson: You have a clash between emotion and science and emotion wins out, at least in the short term.

Hugoson says if the Agriculture Department finds chemicals are creating problems in the sandy soil of Ottertail County, they will respond appropriately. But he says people who don't understand farming are overreacting to the potential health threat from pesticides.

Hugoson: Chemicals are getting safer all the time. There are chemicals now you can drink and there's no side effects. On the other hand, when they're $600 a gallon, you're not inclined to do so because it costs too much.

Hugoson says the department does what monitoring it can afford, but also depends on farmers to properly apply chemicals.

John Hines is in charge of the state Agriculture Department's pesticide monitoring program. He says Ottertail County is an especially sensitive area. The underground aquifers are close to the surface and sandy soil allows water laden with fertilizer and chemicals to quickly reach the groundwater. Some researchers say there is little danger because most farm chemicals break down quickly, before they can get to the groundwater. John Hines says it's true most break down in a few hours to a few days, but they don't just disappear.

Hines: A lot of the compounds break down where the breakdown compounds are different from the parent compound and you can't monitor for the breakdown compound, yet that's the one of concern.

Several agencies are responsible for regulating irrigated farmland. The Department of Natural Resources grants permits for the irrigation water, the Agriculture Department oversees farm chemicals and monitors possible pollution.

The state Health Department tests public water supplies for many contaminants, including some farm chemicals. But responsibility for broad pesticide monitoring lies with the Agriculture Department, and the department says there isn't money for a widespread monitoring program.

Willard Munger says farmers should pay for monitoring. He suggests some kind of tax on the billions of gallons of water used to irrigate crops. Paying for water would be a major change in Minnesota policy. Farmers now pay only a one-time $50 fee for the right to millions of gallons of water.

Next year, the Agriculture Department plans to begin a research project to monitor pesticides and nitrates in groundwater for 20 years in Ottertail and several other counties. That's not good enough to satisfy Willard Munger who wants more action and less study.

Some residents of Ottertail County are already drinking bottled water because dozens of wells have high nitrate levels. Residents are convinced that's the result of nitrogen fertilizer getting into the groundwater in large amounts.

And local residents question what's considered a safe level. In the US, drinking water is considered safe at 10 parts per million, twice the amount allowed in most European countries.

Charlie Brust also wonders how serious the Agriculture Department is about finding pesticide problems. Brust lives on an Ottertail County lake surrounded by potato fields.

He says last fall a neighbor's vegetable garden was dead the day after a nearby potato field was sprayed. He says the field was sprayed with diquat, a chemical used to kill potato vines before harvest. He thinks some of the spray drifted across the road and killed the garden. He asked the Agriculture Department to confirm the presence of diquat in the garden plants.

Brust: When it got back, they couldn't find anything. I couldn't believe it, so called the test lab. She told me they tested for a fungicide, and diquat is not a fungicide and pretty soon you start wondering, what's going on?

Brust and other residents have organized. They've lobbied the state legislature and say they will try to take control of the county commission so they can toughen county zoning laws relating to farming.

The Agriculture Department's John Hines says he'll continue monitoring within the department's budget and work with other state agencies to protect the environment. State Representative Willard Munger says he'd like to see the responsibility for farm chemical pollution returned to the Pollution Control Agency. He admits that will likely be an unpopular political move, but one he considers essential to protect the state's natural resources.