Air quality and Superfund sites in Fridley

This webpage provides the most current information in response to concerns by residents of Fridley, about possible factors contributing to the increased cancer incidence in that city, as reported by the Minnesota Department of Health.

Because of the residents’ desire to keep informed about the Fridley Superfund sites, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will offer training in late January or early February 2013 to interested persons on establishing a citizens advisory group (CAG) for the Fridley sites. Fact sheets about CAGs and about the formation of one for Fridley are available on the EPA’s Fridley Area Superfund Sites webpage, as are the EPA’s latest fact sheets about these sites and other topics related to these sites.

Status of Superfund sites in Fridley

Routine monitoring required and overseen by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the EPA at the federal and state Superfund sites and the one Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) site in Fridley indicates there are no known human health exposures at these sites from contaminated soils, vapor and groundwater.

Select a site or issue from the list below to learn more about it.

For more information

For more information on these Superfund sites, contact Sandeep Burman, Supervisor, MPCA Remediation Division, by phone at 651-757-2256, or email sandeep.burman@state.mn.us.

List of Superfund sites in Fridley

Superfund and RCRA sites in southwest Fridley

Fridley Area Superfund Site Locations

Place your mouse over the image to zoom in.

Although it is not in Fridley, persons interested in the New Brighton/Arden Hills Superfund site (Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant or TCAAP) are directed to the following resources:

• Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) Superfund site
• Off-site groundwater plumes at the New Brighton/Arden Hills Superfund Site (TCAAP) (g-62-08)

Fridley Air Quality

The MPCA is responsible for monitoring air quality in Minnesota to ensure that it complies with federal and state standards and benchmarks.

Local governments do not have a specific responsibility for air quality monitoring. The MPCA has assisted cities or counties that wanted to monitor air quality for specific local concerns, such as a unique or large facility in the city or county.

How does the MPCA decide where to place its air monitors?

The MPCA uses federal guidance to determine where to place air monitors. The factors the MPCA looks at include population density, land use, where we expect to see the highest levels of air pollution, where we expect to see a general background for an area, and the potential impacts from large sources of air pollution.

Once it has identified a location to monitor, the MPCA deploys instruments that will collect data for at least a year and, in most cases, many years. These instruments either can take instantaneous measurements at the site or they collect a sample that is analyzed at the MPCA's air quality lab.  After ensuring the data are of high quality, the MPCA analyzes the data to compare to federal or state standards and benchmarks.

The MPCA analyzes data annually as well as over many years to understand Minnesota's air quality.  And every two years, the agency publishes an Air Quality Legislative Report.

The MPCA also publishes an annual Air Monitoring Network Plan.  The plan provides information on each monitoring site and includes a summary of monitoring results from the previous year.  MPCA air monitoring data can also be accessed through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) AirData website.

The MPCA is working on a project to improve the way the agency’s air monitoring data are provided to the public on its website.

Where are the air-monitoring locations closest to Fridley?

The MPCA does not have an air-quality monitor in Fridley. It would be prohibitively expensive to have air-quality monitors in every city in the Twin Cities metro area.

In the metro area, the agency’s monitors are located in:

• Apple Valley,
• Bayport,
• Blaine,
• Eagan,
• Minneapolis,
• Richfield,
• St. Louis Park,
• St. Paul,
• Shakopee, 
• St. Paul Park Refining Company in St. Paul Park, and
• Flint Hills Resources refinery in Rosemount.

The MPCA’s Annual Air Monitoring Network Plan has a list of all air-monitoring sites in Minnesota.

The MPCA air monitoring site closest to Fridley is at the Anoka County Airport in Blaine.  This is a suburban site with a low air traffic volume located in an area with a mix of residential, office parks, commercial, light industrial and recreational use.

Another air monitoring site nearby is at 4646 N. Humboldt Ave. in north Minneapolis.  This site is in an area that includes a mix of land uses, including truck terminals, railyards and manufacturing facilities to the west and northwest and residential neighborhoods to the north, east and south.

Fridley’s air quality is similar to that of other suburbs near the I-494/I-694 loop

When we look at both monitoring data and modeled data, we see that Fridley's air quality is similar to that of other suburbs near the I-494/I-694 loop and slightly better than what we see in the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, near I-94/I-35W and I-94/I-35E. The MPCA has not seen air pollutant levels above a federal or state standard at either the airport in Blaine or at the north Minneapolis monitoring site.

Fine particles, known as PM2.5 because they are less than 2.5 microns in diameter, is the air pollutant the MPCA is most closely watching because the Twin Cities are closest to the federal standard for this pollutant. High levels of fine particles exasperate existing cardiac problems and respiratory problems, such as asthma. Some evidence suggests that exposure to fine particles may cause lung cancer.

For air pollutants that are linked to cancer, the MPCA is focusing its efforts on sources that are not subject to MPCA’s traditional permitting programs, especially gasoline and diesel vehicles, diesel backup generators, residential wood smoke and backyard garbage burning.  Again, MPCA modeling for these sources shows that Fridley’s air quality is no different than that of other suburbs near the I-494/I-694 loop.

We have not seen any monitoring or modeling data that indicate that air pollution in or near Fridley is suspiciously different from that of other Twin Cities suburbs.

What about pollution from vehicles on I-694?

Interstate Highway 694 through Fridley ranks only thirteenth in the Twin Cities metro area in terms of the Annual Average Daily Traffic Count. The I-94 corridor between Minneapolis and St. Paul and the I-35 corridor through the Twin Cities have, on average, the highest daily traffic counts. Traffic counts give us a sense of the relative size of emission sources on a roadway.

Traffic-related pollution emissions are most concentrated within 1,500 feet (0.3 mile) of a roadway, and the concentration decreases as the distance from the roadway increases. This relationship is dependent on the airflow within a roadway, the amount of traffic, and whether there are obstructions, such as a noise wall or vegetation, along the roadway.

For more information

For more information about air quality in Fridley, contact MPCA air quality project manager Frank Kohlasch by phone at 651-757-2500, or email frank.kohlasch@state.mn.us