Chemicals pumped into the Vermillion

[Carp-fisher]

I heard on MPR today that the city of Farmington pumped all kinds of hazardous chemicals into the Vermillion River. Does anyone have any info on this? Has it affected fishing?

[troutman]

There is an article in Thursday's edition of the Hastings Star Gazette about it.I think it's available on-line but,I don't know if providing a link to there would be allowed on FM and in all honesty...I wouldn't know how to do it if it was. I would think you could Google it.

[trico]

The whole article appears on the mntu site. I won't offer a link, but it's a .org site. Do some looking around and you can read the entire article.

It's an alarming article from not just a fisheries perspective, but from an environmental perspective as well.

Take care,

D.A.

[WxGuy]

Here's the article from the Farmington Independent

By Nathan Hansen, editor

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has fined the city of Farmington more than $18,000 since the April for a series of violations related to water quality monitoring and permits for discharging groundwater to the Vermillion River. Elise Doucette, who handled the case for the MPCA, called the violations serious, but said she is confident they were the result of miscommunications and misunderstandings rather than

any attempt by the city to avoid MPCA regulations. Farmington mayor Kevan Soderberg said Bonestroo, Rosene, Anderlik and Associates, the city’s engineering firm, has taken responsibility for the mistakes and will pay the fines.

According to Patience Caso, a water program for Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota, a private contractor notified the MPCA in September of 2003 of a gas odor during a city utility project on Main Street. The MPCA found the city was dewatering - pumping out groundwater in order to lower the water table for the installation of utilities - without a permit.

City engineer Lee Mann said project planners misunderstood the MPCA’s requirements regarding permitting for the project. As a result of the violation the MPCA required the city to get a discharge permit and to conduct twice-monthly water quality testing and monthly reporting. The MPCA did not fine the city for the violation at that time.

According to Doucette, a routine file review in December of 2004 found the city was late filing several of those required monitoring reports between December of 2003 and June of 2004, and failed to conduct several water quality tests between April and September of 2004.

In April, the MPCA fined Farmington $8,350 for those violations, plus another $660 that was later refunded.

According to Doucette, the problems with the reports were the result of miscommunications with the labs testing the groundwater. In some cases, information from one month showed up in another month’s report. “We try to be consistent,” Doucette said. “In April the violations were for non-reporting and incorrect reporting. We try to keep a level playing field, so the violations we issued in April were similar to other enforcement actions.”

The MPCA fined the city $10,000 in July for dewatering without a permit. The dewatering was done in conjunction with the Ash Street reconstruction project.

According to Doucette, the city got a permit for the second phase of the project but not the first phase. Mann said there was confusion when the city broke the project into two phases. He discovered the problem himself and reported it to the MPCA. There were some concerns at the MPCA about spread of contaminants from leaky tanks at two gas stations near the site of the dewatering well. Doucette said a permit was required because of concerns the dewatering could draw contaminated groundwater closer to nearby homes, or that contaminated water could be discharged to the Vermillion River.

The city discharged 70 million gallons of water from the well to the Vermillion.

“Discharging without a permit is a serious violation, because we’re not aware of what is in the discharge,” Doucette said. While there is no way for the MPCA to test the water that was discharged, Doucette said groundwater from the area tested after the problem was discovered showed no evidence of contamination. The MPCA also found no evidence of contamination at homes in the area. The $10,000 fine is the largest of that type the MPCA could levy against the city, but Doucette said the agency could have used stricter enforcement if it thought there was greater cause for concern.

Caso, though, said the fact the Vermillion River is involved is reason for at least some concern. The river is the only designated trout stream in the Twin Cities, and trout are sensitive to their environment. Some of the contaminants the city was required to test for can cause cancer or central nervous system problems. “The Vermilion is kind of the community asset down there,” Caso said.

“It’s on the (city’s) logo, and we need to protect it.” Mann said the city understands what went wrong, and he said they are working to make sure nothing similar happens. Soderberg, too, seems confident any problems are in the past. He said he is satisfied with the explanation he got from Mann. “He explained it to me and I was satisfied and I moved on,” Soderberg said.

[Carp-fisher]

Guy,

Thanks for the post. Its too bad that the city can get away with pumping 70 million gallons of water into the Vermillion that smelled like gasoline under the guise of "miscommunications". Atleast they were fined 18 grand, and hopefully the damage is minimal. I'm originally from Iowa, and it is commonplace down there for excellent stream fisheries to be totally decimated from hoglot spilling and pumping. Thats a total shame and one of the many reasons I moved to Minnesota.

[Swimmer]

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. This is what you get with the current Government's priorities. Let us NOT forget to make sure we elect good people at all levels of government.