Bruce is right about most of this. The pollution from Minneapolis' largest polluted site does indeed appear to be spreading towards the river via groundwater and a crucial regional aquifer. Whether it will actually seep into the Mississippi and contaminate it is the Big Outstanding Question; answers are pending from Shoreham owner Canadian Pacific Railway as testing continues....and continues....and continues at $12 million and counting.
I suspect the drilling rigs he's seeing are Canadian Pacific's, much like they drilled in the Cemetery along Central Avenue earlier this fall and have been doing along Central Avenue for many months, but getting specifics and cooperation out of the railroad is .... well, I have an easier time getting responses from my cats. Deadlines that were said to be last year are now next year, some other year, 2006, etc. CP Rail is suing Ashland Inc. and Murphy Oil related to the pollution costs/responsibility. They were former tenants at the site. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is the main player monitoring the testing, analysis and eventual clean-up at the site. Sen. Norm Coleman's office, the last I heard a week and a half ago, was playing a key role in getting the city and CP Rail to sit down and come to some resolution on the future of this blighted, contaminated property (that is, the part along Central Avenue that had been slated for redevelopment -- not the entire yards). If VOCs, PCE, TCEs and other pollution jargon make your eyes glaze over, the scary point that seems to be getting lost in all this bureaucratic and legal tangle is this: The polluted aquifer Bruce refers to is supposed to be our area's back-up source of drinking water should anything happen to our RIVER water supply (terrorism or what-have-you). And this polluted aquifer was intended to be a water supply for future generations. And, of course, no one should be drinking from any well in Northeast. This info comes from the MPCA, CP Rail, CPED, our city council members, and assorted others attending monthly meetings of the Shoreham Area Advisory Committee (SAAC), second Monday of each month, 7 p.m. at the Holland neighborhood office, 2516 Central Ave. NE. Everyone is welcome to attend. Hopefully the designated Northeast neighborhood reps who attend are taking this info back to their respective neighborhood organizations and (as in Waite Park), writing about it in their neighborhood newsletters to help keep people in the loop. We are an all-volunteer group that has had zero money to work with while fighting an uphill battle against a multi-national bazillion-dollar corporation (and sometimes against uncooperative or deaf government officials as well). It's been a struggle to get the word out. We work on this in our "leisure" time, so it has been difficult and timeconsuming to spread the complex story of chemicals and lawsuits and federal laws that govern railroads. Nonetheless, I am dumbfounded about why, as Bruce notes, there has been so little attention given to "Shoreham's Spreading Stain" by local papers. (As a long-ago newspaper reporter and former editor, I am well aware of the cliche about never picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel, but I can't resist.) At least the Strib did mention the Ten Most Endangered Sites in Minnesota "honors" and has covered the historic roundhouse battle in the past, but our local "Northeaster" paper seems oblivious. Both newspapers are part of the regular e-mailing from SAAC, so they can't claim ignorance. Gayle Bonneville Northeast Minneapolis REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
