PLUME EXTENDS SOUTH AND ACROSS RIVER, AREA MUNICIPALITIES RISE TO CHALLENGE

Asbestos, DDT, Roundup, lead paint and pipes. The list of manmade compounds and/or naturally occurring elements once touted either as miracle compounds or just cost-effective solutions but later found to have unforeseen side effects, is many. With hindsight being 20/20, per and polyfluoroakyl substances (PFAS) is among the latest to join this bad actor group.

Initially valued for their non-stick and other properties of value to manufacturing, PFAs were conceived some 80 years ago, then being deposited at dump sites in South Washington County and around the nation. Linked after the fact to serious health problems that include increased risk for prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer, along with increased cholesterol and/or risk of obesity, reduced natural bodily immunity, reproductive issues for adults and developmental delays children, and interference with the body’s natural hormones.

As such, PFAS are a significant emerging health concern, with various government agencies from the Environmental Protection Agency at the federal level to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency at the state level, all getting involved.

Released for decades prior to science catching on and a local plume spread covering an area from Lake Elmo down into Hastings, the groundwater transmission pattern for PFAs in South Washington County are further influenced by underground geological features such as bedrock valleys, long-running and inactive ground faults, the Hudson-Afton ‘anticline’ forming an arch from which water effectively drains to either side, and basic underground flow patterns driven by gravity, from high to low water pressure.

But lest one throw their hands up in despair, local government is on the problem and seeking long-term solutions. So what might these involve?

A joint special meeting, in the first place.

Meeting March 30 in a Joint Special Workshop at the HERO Center, the cities of Cottage Grove and Woodbury addressed joint interests and concerns, local crime and response, HERO Center statistics, and even drought conditions.

As to HERO Center statistics, they’re trending good, with the Center used 9,601 hours in 2021, just 232 in total reserved hours cancelled on account of COVID-19.

Of chief interest among the topics covered, however, were the aforementioned PFAs, also called ‘forever chemicals’ due to their aforementioned strong chemical bonds and persistence in the environment.

Currently, the chemicals are trapped using a process called Granular Activated Carbon treatment, explained in more depth by Communication Manager Jen Longaecker.

“Granular Activated Carbon treatment, which is the only approved treatment method by the Minnesota Department of Health at this time, removes the PFAS chemicals from the drinking water and holds them in the carbon media,” she said. “This carbon is then removed and replaced by new media upon the recommendation of MDH. Once removed, it is sent to the appropriate regulatory facilities for disposal.”

Although the city currently uses temporary treatment plants for treating groundwater in the area, long-term plans call for two permanent plants to be built, one on the north side of Highway 61 and another on the south side off Ideal Avenue. Also in the long-term plans for Cottage Grove water are the abandonment of wells 1 and 2 over by the Thompson Grove neighborhood, for reasons of cost effectiveness, as Longaecker explained.

“Those are being abandoned because while they meet the treatment threshold, they are too far removed the proposed plant to cost effectively treat,” she said of the wells by the Thompson Grove neighborhood. “It was a lower cost for the state to pay for a new well next to the treatment plant to replace them.” Long term plans call for a treatment capacity of 14 million gallons daily costing 151.3 million, while also calling for modification of the well at Tamarack with raw water pipelines from Tamarck to the Water Treatment Plant and finished water pipelines for a centralized water treatment plant. Well 1, meanwhile, will be moved to the South Wellfield.

In addition, while the city of Cottage Grove is divided into high pressure,” “intermediate pressure, and “low pressure in terms of geography, these don’t relate to the placement of treatment plants. Wells are housed in nondescript buildings, while the most visible parts in water towers are called “storage tanks” in a diagram shared at the joint special workshop. Well 2 in Thompson Grove is located on Grenadier Avenue.

As to the timeline for longterm water treatment, the city is currently undergoing a treatment pilot study with preliminary engineering report, to be followed with preliminary and final design.

From there the process will move to bidding, currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2023, to be followed with construction of permanent water treatment plants beginning in the third quarter of next year. Pipeline design and construction is planned from 2022 through 2026, with substantial completion of permanent water treatment plants tentatively planned for the third quarter of 2027, with short-term treatment plants filling the gap in between the present and permanent treatment plant construction.

As to the crime statistics shared March 30, they include the news of 47 total Washington County SWAT missions in 2021, up from 43 in 2020 and 29 in 2019. Among calls handled by the SWAT team include the following: • Two related to mutual aid

• Two related to tech assist

• Eight related to CNT assist • Four related to PR events

• Four related to QRF

• Eight related to “civil unrest”

• Four related to protection detail

• Zero related to area search

• Five related to a barricaded individual

• Two related to hostage rescue, and

• Eight related to warrant service Also covered in the law enforcement update at the joint special workshop, meanwhile, were 11 deployments of the Mobile Field Force in 2021, including four within Washington County, four to the State Capitol, one on “Verdict Day,” one to the Burnsville Police Department, and one for a presidential visit. The Mobile Field Force exists “to provide rapid, organized, and disciplined response to civil disorder, crowd control, or other situations,” per a description from the workshop.

Regarding the East Metro Sex Trafficking Task Force (EMSTTF), the joint special workshop reported that this was created with an OJP grant in 2018 and included the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Woodbury, Oakdale,and Cottage Grove Police departments, along with the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

The task force’s focus is on the recovery of victims trafficked in commercial sex places and through social media, assisting as well in the recovery and identification of high-risk youth who are missing or listed as runaways. The organizational goal of EMSTTF is to expand into a major case team able to assist with complex investigations.

Also covered at the meeting were the Major Case Unit/ Community Support Team, Threat Advisory Group, and Washington County Drug Task force, each doing their part to keep South Washington County safe.

Finally in drought-related matters, the March 30 joint Special Workshop showed drought as the worst in a small portion of the Arrowhead and just west of Red Lake in northern Minnesota, while levels in Washington county and much of the eastern part of the state are more moderate.

Among emerging issues meanwhile, were continued growth and development, economic uncertainties and inflation, PFAS trends in the communities, contractor and material availability, and last but not least, “potential drought conditions.” With fee revenue returning to Woodbury and Cottage Grove in the wake of a low point at 2019, the outlook is mixed in South Washington County.

Housing for 2022, though projected lower than 2021, is still growing.

With different maps showing different flow borders, the PFAS plume in Washington County is affected by groundwater patterns and geological features underground. Image from March 30 Joint Special Workshop PowerPoint.