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Fargo ForumA state lawmaker wants the Legislature to investigate the claims of a former state worker who contends in a whistleblower lawsuit that he was fired because he planned to testify about his research into the dangers of the farm chemical atrazine.
"My passion is to get good policy based on sound science, and I felt I was as qualified as anyone to talk about atrazine in the state's waters," said Paul Wotzka, who had been a hydrologist for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
According to his lawsuit, filed last week in federal court, Wotzka had planned to tell a legislative panel in March that the state Agriculture Department misrepresented its own data by claiming that atrazine levels in Minnesota rivers and streams were in compliance with water quality standards.
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Wotzka said he was told that he couldn't testify because he no longer worked for the Agriculture Department. A week later, he said he was told he was being put on leave and would be investigated. He was fired on May 8.
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