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According to this recent EPA Press Release:
St. Louis Park, Minn., Vapor Intrusion Study Update Meeting March 19
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 will host a public meeting to update residents on findings of the vapor intrusion study being conducted in the vicinity of Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue. The meeting will be 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 19 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center, 3700 Monterey Drive, St. Louis Park, Minn.
Vapors from volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, have been found in some area ground water and could get into homes and commercial buildings. EPA has screened about 250 St. Louis Park properties since December. A Web site is at http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/stlouispark/index.htm
Officials from partner agencies are expected at the meeting. Partner agencies include Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Department of Public Health, Hennepin County and the city of St. Louis Park.
For more information or special accommodations at the meeting, contact EPA community involvement coordinator Don de Blasio, 800-621-8431, Ext. 64360 (weekdays 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.) or deblasio.don@epa.gov.
SOURCE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5
After finding cause for concern in previous tests, the St. Louis Park (MN) vapor intrusion investigation expands:
Expanding the search for potentially hazardous vapors in homes and businesses in St. Louis Park, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it will add about 50 properties to its study area on both sides of Hwy. 7 near Wooddale Avenue.
[...]
The main chemicals of concern, trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, have been used for decades as industrial degreasers, metal cleaners and dry-cleaning fluids and seeped into the groundwater under St. Louis Park. Long-term exposure to them at certain levels has been linked to cancer, liver disease and other problems, according to state health officials.
[...]
EPA officials will go door-to-door this Saturday to explain the situation to those living in the expanded study area, and to seek their permission to take air samples. The testing involves drilling a small hole in the basement and inserting a 2-foot probe about the width of a pencil.
The initial study area contained about 270 homes and businesses, and the EPA received permission from owners to test vapors beneath 214 of the buildings. Of that number, 32 homes and eight commercial buildings were found to have enough contamination to justify more testing to check air in different rooms and for longer periods of time.
Read more here.
According to the Star Tribune (MN):
[EPA w]orkers are testing the air inside 40 homes and businesses in St. Louis Park after chemical vapors were discovered in the soil under their basements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
Those properties were among more than 200 homes and businesses that were checked for potential risk from underground solvent contamination.
[...]
Each of the 40 properties will be visited by a mobile lab, [EPA's "on-scene coordinator, Sonia] Vega said. Technicians are going room to room in the homes, using special hoses to pump air into the lab to see whether the vapors are present in high concentrations. They will also leave 24-hour sampling canisters in each building to test the air in the basement and first-floor levels.
The main chemicals of concern, trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, have been used for decades as industrial degreasers, metal cleaners and dry-cleaning fluids. Long-term exposure to them at certain levels has been linked to cancer, liver problems and other adverse health effects, according to state health officials.
[...]
The properties being tested are on both sides of Hwy. 7 near Wooddale Avenue. By last week, workers had pulled air samples from beneath the basement floors of 184 residences and 29 commercial or industrial buildings.
Vega said the vapors measured beneath the 32 homes and eight commercial buildings ranged from slightly above health guidelines to more than twice what is considered safe. The buildings with the higher vapor concentrations in their soils were clustered, Vega said, but she could not provide more details until the test results are completed and mapped.
Read the full story here. In a previous article, the Star Tribune posted a map of the evaluation area:
See below for the Star Tribune’s previous coverage of this story:
According to this brief story in last week’s St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN):
Bayport officials this week approved plans to build a treatment system for a contaminant that has reached a disturbing level in one of the city’s three wells. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will spend $613,392 on a citywide system to treat trichloroethylene, or TCE, said City Administrator Mike McGuire. Construction is expected to begin this fall and be completed by June 2007…
Latest results from the Minnesota Health Department show the TCE level in the contaminated well was 5.8 parts per billion last month, up from 5.6 parts per billion in March. The maximum level allowed in public water supplies is 5 parts per billion.
Read more here
In light of the recently revealed financial stakes of further TCE regulation for the world’s most powerful polluter and the LA Times series on TCE’s politics and community impact, we found the following article, entitled “Pollution Cleanups Pit Pentagon Against Regulators,” both interesting and disturbing. From everyone’s favorite color newspaper, USA Today, in October 2004:
Across the nation, the Pentagon is taking extraordinary steps to limit the military’s accountability for a 50-year legacy of pollution, a USA TODAY investigation finds…
Since 2001, Pentagon officials have stalled cleanups at scores of military sites where contamination from training and manufacturing has fouled soil and water. They’ve used their political clout to sidetrack new regulations that could force the services to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to deal with pollution. And they’ve challenged state and federal regulators’ power to make the military obey existing environmental laws…
Four years after President Bush campaigned on a pledge to make the military “comply with environmental laws by which all of us must live,” the White House is the Pentagon’s chief ally in pushing for relief from such laws.
Within the administration, “it’s no secret that the EPA is running into this wall with the Pentagon,” says Linda Fisher, who served two years as Bush’s deputy EPA administrator — the agency’s second-in- command — before returning to private work last year.
“Is the Department of Defense taking (regulatory disputes) to the White House more often? Absolutely,” says Fisher, who has held environmental jobs in every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan’s. “Is the Department of Defense more powerful than the EPA? Yes.”
Defense officials say state and federal environmental agencies have too much power to demand costly and intrusive cleanups on military land. The Pentagon wants to cut its $4 billion a year in environmental costs — less than 1% of defense spending — by gaining more authority over where and how cleanups will be done.
“Some of these regulators are doing wrongheaded things based on poor scientific evidence,” says Raymond DuBois, deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment. “Shouldn’t we, as stewards of the taxpayers’ money, decide how we’re going to clean up?”
Ummm. No.
The article goes on to highlight key findings of the USA Today investigation:
•The Pentagon is thwarting environmental agencies’ efforts to set cleanup rules.
Since 2001, the armed services have delayed more than 70 federal cleanup agreements that would dictate the scope and timing of restoration at contaminated military sites…
The Pentagon also is fighting EPA efforts to set new pollution limits on two military contaminants: perchlorate, a munitions ingredient, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent. After military officials complained to the White House that the EPA’s studies overstated the chemicals’ health risks, the agency opted to wait for years of additional study before making new rules.
State environmental regulators are facing military resistance, too. In Colorado, California, Ohio and Minnesota, the services are fighting state efforts to restrict the future use of contaminated military property. In California, Florida, Hawaii and Alaska, the military has challenged the authority of state officials to fine the armed forces for pollution problems.
•The EPA is cutting efforts to make the military comply with environmental laws.
•The Pentagon is spending less on cleanups.
If you check out the full article, you can read more about places like Lowry Air Force Base where AF appears to be deciding for itself whether toxic clean-up is really necessary. Or you can check out USA Today’s nifty Flash presentation in which you can view the clean-up status of 130 military-owned Superfund sites in 39 states, state by state (OK, we cheated, you can launch it from here. <— warning, must have flash installed to view).
note: If any readers have a ton of time on their hands, here’s a project idea. We’d like to post a list of these 130 military EPA Superfund sites, by state. We’ll make it a point to extract all the names and descriptions from the USA Today preso and will post it here when it’s complete. It may be some time before we get to this. If anyone wants to get a jump on it in the meantime, we promise we will not complain. We might even be willing to publicly thank you for your effort. If you’ve got any interest in this project, please let us know.
The Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN) reports:
A 25-year financing proposal committing future property taxes to a major retail and housing project in northwestern Roseville got City Council approval Monday night, as the long-debated Twin Lakes redevelopment moved forward.
By establishing a tax-increment financing district on nearly 80 acres of the site property, the council — on a 3-2 vote — cleared the way for construction of 730 housing units, 225,000 square feet of office space and 325,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
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TIF districts allow the increased taxes that result from improved properties to be returned to the developer as a reimbursement for upfront costs. Twin Lakes proponents say the incentive is necessary to make the redevelopment and environmental cleanup financially feasible. The area is frequently described as blighted and is known to harbor the toxin TCE in its groundwater.
Twin Lakes opponents, more than a dozen of whom spoke during a public hearing Monday, criticize TIF as a subsidy for developers.
Read more.
…to keep people safer from TCE, please encourage them to contact:
Jody Milanese (millaneese) in Congresswoman Sue Kelly’s office at 202-225-5441
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