Arsenic cleanup meeting, 6/11
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release about a public meeting to discuss the next phase of arsenic removal from the South Minneapolis Superfund site:
EPA proposes cleanup plan for South Minneapolis Superfund site; meeting
June 11, 6:30 p.m.
CHICAGO (June 4, 2008) – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5
will hold a public meeting to discuss its proposed $17.9 million cleanup
plan for the South Minneapolis Residential Soil Contamination Superfund
site in Minneapolis. The meeting will be Wednesday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.,
at the YWCA, 2121 E. Lake St. A comment period began June 2 and runs
until July 1.
Unlike past less structured meetings about the site, this meeting will
follow a traditional public comment format. EPA representatives will
discuss the proposed plan and then give local officials and residents an
opportunity to ask questions or make comments about the cleanup plan
that a court reporter will record. Comments may also be mailed, faxed
or submitted via an electronic form here. A fact sheet
with details on the plan and instructions on how to mail or fax comments
may be found at that URL.
EPA evaluated six cleanup alternatives and proposes a plan that calls
for removing shallow soil with arsenic levels higher than 25 parts per
million. (Parts per million, or ppm, are expressed in the metric system
as milligrams per kilogram, or mg/kg.) EPA will take soil samples from
each excavated property to show that only low amounts of arsenic remain.
If soil one foot deep still contains arsenic higher than 95 ppm, workers
will dig deeper. Once the contaminated soil is removed, EPA will fill
in the yards with clean soil and restore any landscaping disturbed.
The South Minneapolis Superfund site encompasses a number of
neighborhoods near the intersection of 28th Street and Hiawatha Avenue,
where the CMC Heartland Lite Yard was located from about 1938 to 1968.
A pesticide containing arsenic was produced there and material from an
open-air railcar-unloading and product-mixing operation is believed to
have been wind-blown into nearby neighborhoods.
Since 2004, EPA has collected soil samples from more than 3,000
properties in the area. By the end of 2008, EPA will have cleaned up
197 yards with arsenic levels above 95 ppm – a level that presented
short-term health risks. EPA dug up one foot of soil at those
properties and will revisit them if the sample results from the
remaining deep soil shows levels above 95 ppm.
Residents with questions or who need special accommodations at the
public meeting may contact EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Cheryl
Allen at 800-621-8431, Ext. 36196, or allen.cheryl@epa.gov.
last revised: June 6, 2008