The Longest Cleanup
Sunday: Battling tainted water
Groundwater contaminated with industrial chemicals lurks under vast portions of the Twin Cities metropolitan area even though more than $200 million has been spent over two decades to combat the problem. The contamination, a legacy of once-prevalent industrial dumping, persists beneath communities from Edina to New Brighton to Woodbury. In Washington County, the spread of underground pollution is turning out to be worse than anyone thought.
A Star Tribune examination of groundwater monitoring reports, maps and other records has identified 20 significant plumes of contaminated groundwater underlying parts of 35 metro communities. If added together, the polluted zones would equal an area 2½ times the size of Minneapolis.
No illnesses have been directly linked to the pollutants, but the contamination can pose long-term risks to health. And parts of the metro area will be stuck trying to clean up the chemicals for decades, often at taxpayers' expense.
Already 150,000 people served by six suburban utilities drink water that must be specially treated to remove chemicals that leached underground. Two more suburbs with 37,000 people are likely to get such filtration soon.
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The Longest Cleanup
Monday: Hunting the invisible
It takes detective work to track the path of chemicals in groundwater. Sometimes, the mystery goes unsolved.
More from this series:
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Tuesday: A toxic well, a life changed
Thirty-five years ago, three Perham, Minn., men drank contaminated well water. The last survivor still suffers its effects. -
How the plumes were identified
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Chemicals in the water
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The pollution that lies beneath
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'It is amazing how much we don't know' about our water sources; House panel aims to fill in the blanks
Across most of Minnesota, the state lacks basic information to track underground pollution or to determine whether aquifers that supply drinking water can be replenished, state leaders say.