Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

MPCA Media Contact: Michael Rafferty, (651) 297-8294 MDH Media Contact: Doug Schultz, (651) 215-1303 City of Bayport (General Information), (651) 275-4404 St. Paul, Minn. - In late July, regular monitoring of Bayport's municipal drinking-water wells by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) showed the concentration of trichloroethylene (TCE) in Bayport Municipal Well No. 2 had increased to 5.8 micrograms/liter (5g/L). A recent follow-up sample confirmed this result. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 5g/L for TCE in public water supplies. Safe drinking-water standards for municipal systems are not violated until the average of four consecutive quarterly samples exceeds 5 5g/L. Even though the Bayport system is not in violation of the MCL, monitoring has shown an increase in the TCE level found in Well No. 2. Based upon the increase in TCE levels in this well, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) will sign an agreement with the city of Bayport that initiates design and construction of a treatment system to remove TCE from Well No. 2. At the levels detected, TCE does not pose an immediate health risk to the public. Therefore, the city of Bayport will continue to use all of its municipal wells, including Well No. 2. The MDH will continue to test water samples from the city's wells at more frequent intervals. The MPCA will oversee the design of a treatment system and the city of Bayport will oversee the system's construction. The MPCA will provide financial resources to pay for design and construction of the project. The main source of the contamination is believed to be a former metal-working shop in Lake Elmo. Since there is not a viable responsible party to respond to the contamination, the MPCA has assumed responsibility to pay for and oversee remediation actions related to it. The MPCA is actively pursuing cleanup of the TCE contamination source in Lake Elmo. Background: Contamination from the source extends eastward to the St. Croix River, covering an area of over 7 square miles. In addition to affecting Bayport municipal wells, the contamination has affected numerous private wells in this area. To date, 150 wells have shown TCE levels that exceeded the interim recommended exposure limit of 5 5g/L set by MDH. Affected homes have been fitted with granular-activated-carbon whole-house filters to remove the contamination. New homes in the area are required to test for TCE and install granular-activated-carbon filters if contamination exists. Also in 2003, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law requiring homeowners within the Baytown Special Well Construction Area who have private wells to notify buyers at the time of sale that the property is in the well construction area. The following Web sites provide additional information about TCE issues related to the Baytown Ground-water Contamination Superfund site. hhref="/cleanup/sites/baytown.html http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/sites/washington/baytown/index.html