Don Parmeter

Don Parmeter is co-chairman of the National Water & Conservation Alliance, established in 2009 to develop and promote local and regional alternatives to expansion of federal authority under the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act.

He is the founder of the American Environmental Institute, established in 2010 to define actions needed to change the course of the modern environmental movement in order to promote honesty and scientific integrity, protect property rights, and restore the constitutional principles of limited federal powers.

Mr. Parmeter is a former pollution control engineer and a native of northern Minnesota.  He is a West Point graduate and former military officer.  He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at West Point, and received a scholarship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of an interdisciplinary graduate program in the field of energy and environmental studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

He has been a leader in state and national environmental issues for over 35 years, and has helped establish and lead numerous grassroots organizations in Minnesota.  He is a recipient of the annual grassroots leadership award from the Property Rights Foundation of America for his dedication to defending property rights and constitutional representative government.

Since moving to St. Paul in 2007, he has concentrated his efforts on defeating a federal water bill authored by Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, legislation that arguably represents the biggest federal power grab in American history.  He played an instrumental role in the recent defeat of Rep. Oberstar.