Page Title
 |  |  |  |  |
| Barrels |
SLSA Urges Superfund Designation for Barrel Problem
by SLSA vice-President Glenn Maxham
Residents of the 27,000 households served by the Duluth municipal water system should find no comfort in the
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) current report on the potential hazard from the 1440 barrels dumped in
Lake Superior between Knife River and Duluth.
The MHD’S thirteen page evaluation sent to the Save Lake Superior Association ,SLSA, by toxicologist Carl
Herbrandson provides no scientific proof that harmful chemicals are not in some of the 90% of the barrels that have
not been recovered and their contents still untested.
He attempts but fails to assure us that we need not worry about the unknown contents in the 415 tons of barrels
disposed of in Lake Superior from the Honeywell, Inc. Twin Cities Army Am munitions Plant between 1958 and 1962.
After asserting that, " ...the risks of detrimental exposures to people from the barrels are unquantifiable but low" he
admits in his concluding statement that, " MDH has not evaluated the potential risks to the environment, or damages
to natural resources incurred by the barrel dumping." To us that’s a frank admission that state and federal agencies
have not ruled out the "potential" risk to those who drink Duluth’s water.
After more than two decades of researching official records relating to the barrel dumping, we in the Save Lake
Superior Association find ourselves in complete agreement with former Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Commissioner Charles "Chuck" Williams on the pressing need for action.
In his April 27, 1992 letter to then Senator David Durenberger, Commissioner Williams sought federal aid in stating,
" It is the MPCA’s belief that without further examination of all barrel dump sites, we cannot assure that Lake
Superior is adequately protected...we do feel it is imperative that all of the dump sites be investigated."
Williams felt the federal government was delaying an environmental assessment that was, in his words,
"long overdue." The Commissioner maintained that, " To the general public, it signals continued indifference by the
Department of Defense to settling questions of the barrel’s contents once and for all. It also sends a message to the
people of Minnesota—and the rest of the nation— that the federal government is unwilling, unable or uninterested in
addressing environmental issues involving facilities." (Two years later Williams recanted and said, " We are now
satisfied that the barrels do not pose an immediate threat.")
Since 1994, SLSA has proposed that the dump sites be declared an underwater Superfund site with no expenses
borne by the City of Duluth and that federal funds be allocated to Duluth for state-of-the-art equipment to constantly
monitor water at the intake source for signs of chemicals— PCBs, lead, cadmium, benzene and barium— found in a
recovered barrel and in amounts exceeding MPCA safety standards.
To the best of our knowledge, the MPCA never publicly released the startling contents of a June 30, 1977
communication between the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland and the USA Armament Material
Readiness Command office in Rock Island, Illinois.
The subject of the letter was Environmental Hazards of Waste Disposal in Lake Superior. It was a request to the
Environmental Quality Office in Rock Island to, "....evaluate, on a worst case basis, the potential environmental
hazard due to chemical toxicity of disposal in Lake Superior, during the period, 1957-62, of six sealed 55 gallon
drums containing potential toxicants ( lithium chloride, barium and calcium chromate, calcium chloride, and zirconium
metal.") The total weight of these toxicants was just shy of six tons!
Apparently no one knows the whereabouts of these six barrels nor the condition of the drums. It is possible that the
toxicants have already seeped from eroding containers and were safely diluted. We are, however, seriously alarmed
by the dreadful possibility such corrosion has not yet happened and thus pose a dangerous threat to public health!
We hope they are not among those in one of the six dump sites that are within a mile or less of Duluth’s water intake.
It’s also significant to consider this MPCA statement; The EPA Water Quality Lab in Duluth noted spawning and
behavioral abnormalities in some laboratory species subjected to lake water. The EPA Lab also detected changes in
characteristics from their water intake pipe in Lake Superior.*
Because of the potential negative health impact on human and aquatic life, we can no longer continue defacto
Russian roulette by allowing ourselves to accept an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude.
* Reference to a Nov.11, 1976 letter of enquiry from EPA Lab Director Dr. Donald Mount to MPCA Director Peter Gove
by SLSA vice-President Glenn Maxham
Residents of the 27,000 households served by the Duluth municipal water system should find no comfort in the
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) current report on the potential hazard from the 1440 barrels dumped in
Lake Superior between Knife River and Duluth.
The MHD’S thirteen page evaluation sent to the Save Lake Superior Association ,SLSA, by toxicologist Carl
Herbrandson provides no scientific proof that harmful chemicals are not in some of the 90% of the barrels that have
not been recovered and their contents still untested.
He attempts but fails to assure us that we need not worry about the unknown contents in the 415 tons of barrels
disposed of in Lake Superior from the Honeywell, Inc. Twin Cities Army Am munitions Plant between 1958 and 1962.
After asserting that, " ...the risks of detrimental exposures to people from the barrels are unquantifiable but low" he
admits in his concluding statement that, " MDH has not evaluated the potential risks to the environment, or damages
to natural resources incurred by the barrel dumping." To us that’s a frank admission that state and federal agencies
have not ruled out the "potential" risk to those who drink Duluth’s water.
After more than two decades of researching official records relating to the barrel dumping, we in the Save Lake
Superior Association find ourselves in complete agreement with former Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Commissioner Charles "Chuck" Williams on the pressing need for action.
In his April 27, 1992 letter to then Senator David Durenberger, Commissioner Williams sought federal aid in stating,
" It is the MPCA’s belief that without further examination of all barrel dump sites, we cannot assure that Lake
Superior is adequately protected...we do feel it is imperative that all of the dump sites be investigated."
Williams felt the federal government was delaying an environmental assessment that was, in his words,
"long overdue." The Commissioner maintained that, " To the general public, it signals continued indifference by the
Department of Defense to settling questions of the barrel’s contents once and for all. It also sends a message to the
people of Minnesota—and the rest of the nation— that the federal government is unwilling, unable or uninterested in
addressing environmental issues involving facilities." (Two years later Williams recanted and said, " We are now
satisfied that the barrels do not pose an immediate threat.")
Since 1994, SLSA has proposed that the dump sites be declared an underwater Superfund site with no expenses
borne by the City of Duluth and that federal funds be allocated to Duluth for state-of-the-art equipment to constantly
monitor water at the intake source for signs of chemicals— PCBs, lead, cadmium, benzene and barium— found in a
recovered barrel and in amounts exceeding MPCA safety standards.
To the best of our knowledge, the MPCA never publicly released the startling contents of a June 30, 1977
communication between the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland and the USA Armament Material
Readiness Command office in Rock Island, Illinois.
The subject of the letter was Environmental Hazards of Waste Disposal in Lake Superior. It was a request to the
Environmental Quality Office in Rock Island to, "....evaluate, on a worst case basis, the potential environmental
hazard due to chemical toxicity of disposal in Lake Superior, during the period, 1957-62, of six sealed 55 gallon
drums containing potential toxicants ( lithium chloride, barium and calcium chromate, calcium chloride, and zirconium
metal.") The total weight of these toxicants was just shy of six tons!
Apparently no one knows the whereabouts of these six barrels nor the condition of the drums. It is possible that the
toxicants have already seeped from eroding containers and were safely diluted. We are, however, seriously alarmed
by the dreadful possibility such corrosion has not yet happened and thus pose a dangerous threat to public health!
We hope they are not among those in one of the six dump sites that are within a mile or less of Duluth’s water intake.
It’s also significant to consider this MPCA statement; The EPA Water Quality Lab in Duluth noted spawning and
behavioral abnormalities in some laboratory species subjected to lake water. The EPA Lab also detected changes in
characteristics from their water intake pipe in Lake Superior.*
Because of the potential negative health impact on human and aquatic life, we can no longer continue defacto
Russian roulette by allowing ourselves to accept an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude.
* Reference to a Nov.11, 1976 letter of enquiry from EPA Lab Director Dr. Donald Mount to MPCA Director Peter Gove