What's in My Neighborhood: Contaminated Properties
About contaminated properties in the What's in my neighborhood database.
What happens to properties that are contaminated?
Once a site is confirmed to be contaminated, there is a thorough investigation to determine what sort of cleanup is needed. Cleanup standards differ depending on location and future use of the property. For more information on cleanup, see the MPCA cleanup page.
Does Minnesota have a lot of contaminated properties?
The inventory may seem to contain a lot of contaminated properties, but there are three reasons for this:
- Minnesota has been aggressive in seeking out and cleaning up contaminated sites since the early 1980s, soon after the federal Superfund law was passed to help clean up these properties. Many other states did not begin to do the same until the 1990s.
- Minnesota's inventory contains all properties that were investigated, whether contamination was confirmed or not. Many other states include only properties where contamination was confirmed.
- Programs that provide liability assurances, such as the Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup Program, have encouraged buyers, lenders and developers to identify potentially contaminated properties as candidates for cleanup and re-use. Because of these programs, many properties that would have remained untouched are instead cleaned up and developed.
How can I find additional information about these properties?
See our page of links to related information for some resources that you can use to find out more.
