[CPEO-BIF] Minnesota TCE Emissions

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Factory emissions may be just as important as vapor intrusion from brownfields and other cleanup sites in exposing Minnesotans to TCE vapors. - LS]

Some Twin Cities companies emit TCE at levels 30 times the health limit — and more — report shows
The MPCA is rethinking how to handle air permits for the toxic chemical. 

By  Jennifer Bjorhus 
Minneapolis Star Tribune (MN)
JANUARY 30, 2020 

After the revelation last year that White Bear Township manufacturer Water Gremlin pumped tons of a carcinogen into the air for more than a decade, Minnesota pollution regulators have tried to determine who emits the dangerous pollutant and how much.

The troubling reality underlying the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s new legislative update on trichloroethylene, called TCE, is that the MPCA still doesn’t know the scope of the problem.

Not all TCE emitters have applied for pollution permits, and most air pollution permits don’t contain specific TCE-related limitations, the update said. Instead the state lumps together volatile organic compounds, of which TCE is one.

The brief report contains the first public findings since the state Legislature gave the MPCA $700,000 last spring for a two-year project to assess statewide TCE use after the Water Gremlin pollution scandal.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.startribune.com/some-twin-cities-companies-emit-tce-at-levels-30-times-the-health-limit-and-more-report-shows/567441222/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org





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