Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

MPCA technical contact: Kevin Faus, (651) 297-8671 MPCA media contact: Anne Perry Moore, (218) 723-2356 DNR technical contact: Marilyn Danks, (651) 296-0777 DNR media contact: Jean Goad, (218) 999-7911 DULUTH, Minn. -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have reached a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) agreement with a Minnesota petroleum refinery over soil and water contamination. The agreement is based on federal and state laws that require public compensation for natural resources injured by oil or other hazardous materials. The NRDA agreement calls for ConocoPhillips, Inc., a Houston-based multinational corporation that operates the former Conoco, Inc. refinery and storage and distribution facility in Wrenshall, southwest of Duluth, to pay $63,000 to the DNR to restore natural resources. The company will also survey the property for an easement that will be conveyed to the DNR for a state trail, install security fencing separating the facility from the easement, and reimburse the MPCA and the DNR for $2,450 in staff time spent assessing resource damage. From 1957 to 1980, undetected petroleum product spilled or leaked from the former Conoco refinery into the soil and ground water beneath it. ConocoPhillips is remediating the contaminated soil on site and will continue groundwater monitoring under a separate agreement with the MPCA. "State trustees, who are appointed by the governor, used a cooperative and streamlined assessment approach to settle this NRDA project in a cost-efficient manner," Marilyn Danks, DNR aquatic biologist, said. In Minnesota, the DNR and the MPCA are co-trustees for natural resources. Under NRDA regulations, one of the trustees' primary responsibilities is to assess the extent of natural resource injuries and determine appropriate ways of restoring and compensating for those injuries. NRDA restoration settlement plans are pending at two other local sites: the Enbridge Energy Company's 2002 oil spill at Cohasset and the St. Louis River/Interlake/Duluth Tar superfund site in Duluth. Other NRDA projects in the region involve contaminated rivers which drain into the Great Lakes, including the Fox River in Green Bay, Wis.; the Grand Calumet River in Indiana; the Kalamazoo River and Saginaw River and Bay in Michigan; Ohio's Ashtabula River; and the Lawrenceville Refinery site in Illinois. For more information about NRDA agreements, visit the U.S. Department of Interior's Web site at http://restoration.doi.gov.