ERMUSR MISC 10-09-2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Sunday: Battling tainted water Page 1 of 7 StarTribun~~cvrn IKr~r1~lEAPOt.IS - s~. PAUL, I~~~1vESC~TA Sunday: Battling tainted water Across the metro, industrial chemicals have seeped into groundwater we drink. It's a stubborn, costly problem that will take decades to fix. By Davd__Shaffer, Star Tribune Last update: September 17, 2007 - 7:05 AM Groundwater contaminated with industrial chemicals lurks under vast portions of the Twin Cities metropolitan area even though more than $200 million has been spent over two decades to combat the problem. The contamination, a legacy of once-prevalent industrial dumping, persists beneath communities from Edina to New Brighton to Woodbury. In Washington County, the spread of underground pollution is turning out to be worse than anyone thought. A Star Tribune examination of groundwater monitoring reports, maps and other records has identified 20 significant plumes of contaminated groundwater underlying parts of 35 metro communities. If added together, the polluted zones would equal an area 2'/z times the size of Minneapolis. No illnesses have been directly linked to the pollutants, but the contamination can pose long-term risks to health. And parts of the metro area will be stuck trying to clean up the chemicals for decades, often at taxpayers' expense. Already 150,000 people served by six suburban utilities drink water that must be specially treated to remove chemicals that leached underground. Two more suburbs with 37,000 people are likely to get such filtration soon. The discovery of something unwelcome in the water is crashing into the lives of more families like Kim Lindholm's of Lake Elmo. In May, her telephone answering machine blurted out a warning from the state Health Department: "Do not drink your water. Do not cook with your water...." The family's well had tested positive for a substance that likely escaped from a nearby landfill. "That freaked me out," recalled Lindholm, who has two young boys. More than 1,000 private wells in Washington County contain pollutants from old dumps and industries. Many residents, including the Lindholms, have turned to whole-house filtration units for protection. Maps issued by the state Health Department in July show low levels of the 3M chemical PFBA in groundwater beneath 99 square miles of Washington County, a quarter of its land mass. In a third of that area, levels of the chemical once used for coating photographic film exceed what the state advises for drinking water. http://www.startribune.com/10237/v-print/story/1421645.htm1 9/21 /2007