Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Contact: Ralph Pribble, 651-757-2657 St. Paul, Minn. -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is recommending that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designate an area around Gopher Resources Corp. (GRC), a lead-processing facility in Eagan, as a federal "non-attainment" area for lead in ambient air. The EPA tightened the national standard for lead in ambient air to protect at-risk groups, especially children. The new standard required the MPCA to review its monitoring data and recommend designations to the EPA within one year for any areas of the state that are out of compliance with the new, lower standard. The EPA has up to two years to decide on final designation. The entire state was in compliance with the federal standard prior to the change. The area surrounding the GRC facility does not meet the new federal standard for lead in ambient air. The MPCA also requested that areas around three other facilities -- Grede Foundries Inc. in St Cloud, Dotson Co. Inc. in Mankato, and Federal Cartridge Corp. in Anoka - be designated as unclassifiable, which means more monitoring is needed to make the determination. The rest of the state meets the new ambient standard and is in attainment. The request for the new federal classifications, for the most part, is not due to increases in emissions. In fact, GRC's emissions have dropped in the past year. The recommendation is due to a10-fold decrease in the national lead standard, promulgated in October 2008, which lowered the threshold for attainment. The MPCA requested special consideration for the GRC-area nonattainment designation due to significant measures undertaken by the facility to reduce air emissions in July and August 2009, as well as ongoing remediation of lead-contaminated soils at the site. The MPCA asked the EPA to withhold final designation for one year because the current recommendation for nonattainment is based on data from the past three years and does not fully reflect the recent mitigation efforts. If the EPA grants the request, the four areas would be designated next year based on additional monitoring data. Nonattainment designation triggers additional federal requirements for monitoring and mitigation. The MPCA must submit a plan to EPA to improve air quality in an area within 18 months of its designation as nonattainment. The new EPA standard is based on new scientific evidence from health studies that shows that adverse effects occur at much lower levels of lead in blood than previously thought. Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of lead, and exposures to low levels of lead early in life have been linked to effects on IQ, learning, memory and behavior. There is no known safe level of lead in the body. In addition to lowering the lead standard, the EPA also announced an expanded lead monitoring network, including both population and source-oriented monitoring. The 2010 Source-oriented Lead Monitoring Plan for Minnesota is now available for public comment through Nov. 12, 2009. The plan and instructions on how to comment are now available at /air/monitoringnetwork.html.