Twin Cities AAP Settlement

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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MPCA Settles Alleged Violations at Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 06/09/2004 

Saint Paul, Minn. - The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)
announced today that the U.S. Army Environmental Center, Tennessee
Valley Authority and Alliant Techsystems Inc. have agreed to pay a
$150,000 penalty to settle alleged violations that occurred during a
research cleanup project at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant
(TCAAP). 

The violations stem from a phytoremediation project conducted on a
portion of the TCAAP site. Phytoremediation is a technique where plants
are used to extract pollutants from soil. In this instance, corn and
mustard plants were used on a 90'x 90' plot in an attempt to remove lead
from the soil. Lead at the site was a waste byproduct from the
manufacture of ammunition. 

The parties involved failed to obtain a permit for this project and some
of the monitoring equipment used to track contamination was not properly
maintained. The project should have been stopped after the first year
when it was apparent that pollutants were moving deeper into the soil at
the site. 

To resolve these alleged violations, the Army will pay a $75,000 civil
penalty, the Tennessee Valley Authority will pay $60,000 and Alliant
Techsystems will pay $15,000. 

The Army contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to oversee
phytoremediation projects to remove lead from soil, and the TCAAP site
was selected as a site for one of these research projects in February
1998. The project got underway the following May, when the first crop of
corn was planted and monitoring equipment was installed. Initial
readings from monitors showed no detectable levels of pollutants. 

During the summer of 1998, acetic acid and EDTA
(ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) were applied to the soil to make it
easier for plants to take up the lead. Subsequent readings from monitors
showed increasing amounts of lead and EDTA, indicating that pollutants
were moving deeper into the soil. Although the TVA received these
results in the fall of 1998, the information was not made available to
others until December of 1999. 

The project continued during the summer of 1999 despite the fact that
TVA was having difficulty obtaining additional data from the monitors.
When data from the previous years' testing was finally made available,
it was agreed that additional ground-water monitoring was needed and
monitoring wells were installed. Also, water samples collected from
ditches adjacent to the test plot as well as the ground water beneath
the plot showed elevated levels of lead and EDTA. 

Contaminated ground water from below the test site has been extracted
and treated to remove lead and EDTA since October 2000. 

TCAAP is a federally-owned facility of approximately 4-square miles
located in Arden Hills. Alliant Techsystems Inc. manufactured ammunition
there beginning in 1941. It has been listed as a federal Superfund site
since 1983, with at least 24 areas that have needed some level of
cleanup. 

for the original, see
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/news/data/newsRelease.cfm?NR=263167&type=2 

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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