Defense Department Vs. Minnesota City On Groundwater Cleanup
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
The Defense Department is going up against a small Minnesota city on the issue of a decades-old pollution scene.
"New Brighton and the Defense Department have drawn legal battle lines over a 1988 court settlement that requires the Army to pay for treating groundwater that was contaminated over several decades at the nearby Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant," according to the Star Tribune.
The ammunition plant is now a superfund site, meaning it is part of the federal government's program to clean up hazardous waste. "The wastes disposed at [ammunition plant] included volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-VOCs, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cyanide, pesticides, and explosives. The primary impact to the surrounding communities has resulted from VOC contamination of the regional groundwater resource, which is used for municipal and private water supplies," according to the EPA's superfund website.
But now, 26 years after the original settlement, New Brighton and the Army are clashing again. The city filed a motion in U.S. District Court in May saying the Army was not meeting its end of the deal. A July meeting between Army and New Brighton officials attempted to make progress on the dispute.
Early signs are hopeful. New Brighton’s city manager said officials are "cautiously optimistic," according to the Star Tribune report. The sides will continue to meet this summer, but the issue may wind up getting resolved in court.
A congresswoman tried, to no avail, to mediate the issue earlier this year. In March, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-MN, hosted "a meeting between the City of New Brighton and the U.S. Army to attempt to resolve differences related to the Army’s future funding obligations for treatment and de-contamination of the City of New Brighton’s groundwater," according to a release from her office. But the sides didn't reach a deal.
The squabble dates back to the '80s. It resulted in a historic deal that kicked off one of Minnesota's largest groundwater cleanup efforts ever.
"The Army agreed to reimburse all past city costs and to finance construction and operation of a city-owned water treatment facility with an innovative pump-and-treat approach that would serve the dual purpose of providing a safe water supply to New Brighton while also cleaning up the aquifer," according to Waterline, a newsletter of the Minnesota Department of Health Public Water Supply Unit.
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