Minutes - Council - 09/15/1980 - Special

Home

Ms. Ingrid Ritchie, Minnesota Department of Health, listed the issues from a public health standpoint, which were: 1) potential for water pollution, 2) potentional health risks from odor problems and 3) potential explosion hazard from the methane gas. She said the measures that have been instituted have eliminated the explosion hazard & they didn't find a reading high enough to be a health hazard. She said there are trace contaminants in gas streams from industrial contaminants. The work that has been completed shows that Cl. Hydrocarbons have not been detected but that is not to say they may not be found. She said residents have reported symptoms of nausea and headaches from smelling gases. The symptoms are not permanent and if a person gets out of the gas stream, they will feel better. She said she did not mean to minimize any symptoms that have been reported, but there isn't anything that would indicate a health risk at this time. In terms of ground water contamination, they performed the same tests as are being done on test wells in the area and the results of those tests indicate at this time that the water is not being contaminated by any products from the landfill. She said she was not an expert on vegetation so she would not comment on the tree loss issue. Mayor Gamec asked Ms. Ritchie if there was any immediate health, welfare or safety type problem there. Ms. Ritchie said there was no immediate problem. Mayor Gamec asked Ms. Ritchie if the symptoms would disappear when a person gets out of the gas stream. Ms. Ritchie said some may be more sensitive than others. It varies from person to person. She said the measure that have been discussed will provide solutions to this problem. Any gases emitted will follow the air current, so the venting system will be moved farther away from the residents. Mayor Gamec noted that basically, with the shallow wells, the city is more protected because gas can be detected sooner. Mr. Tom Clark, MPCA/Solid Waste Division, stated that the PCA stands by the~ report that had just been given and they took an active roll in putting that report together. He said there are no experts on the PCA staff on gas migration. On August 7th, he made three phone calls to the health department and explained the gas migration problem to them and they assigned Ingrid Ritchie to the case. He found Ms. Ritchie to be very capable and one of the best individuals, if not the best, in looking at a gas migration problem. He said he called Mr. Frank Flower who had visited a lot of states regarding the gas migration from landfills and requested he come out to Minnesota to see the Anoka Landfill, but he was not able to do so. However, a study of Mr. Flower's came out and visited the site on August 23, 1980 and spent the better part of three hours there and talked to the neighbors. He gave them the benefit of his review. Mayor Gamec asked Don Farb, Consultant from Barr Engineering, for his comments. Mr. Farb said that Barr Engineering co. had been hired to look at the monitoring programs for the four landfills in the county. Their scope was to look at the ground water to see if there were contaminants there and they provided Commissioner McGinley with their report the morning of the meeting. C/September ~5~ 1980 Page 3