After multiple attempts to work with the owners of Freeway Landfill and Freeway Dump, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) initiated a declaratory judgment action against the owners of the facility to protect the drinking water supply of residents of Burnsville and Savage.
The MPCA has repeatedly tried to work with Freeway ownership to bring them into the closed landfill program, which would allow the MPCA to take the necessary remediation actions. This action would likely leave some property, once remediated, for development in the future. While not allowing the MPCA to take the necessary remediation actions, Freeway ownership has failed to take proper remediation actions on their own.
“We did not take this action lightly. In fact, this is the first time we have taken such action against an owner of a closed landfill,” said Kirk Koudelka, assistant commissioner for the MPCA. “The owners have been uncooperative and failed to follow state law and work with state officials to protect the drinking water for the people of Burnsville and Savage despite our multiple meetings and attempts to work with them.”
A declaratory judgment action is a legal proceeding where the court is asked to define the rights, status, obligations, or legal relations of the parties to a controversy. Under Minnesota law—the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act—courts have the authority to issue declarations as to the rights of the parties. Declaratory judgment actions are meant to resolve uncertainty arising from controversies about the legal rights of the parties. Here, those uncertainties arise out of the rights and obligations for both the MPCA and Freeway owners under the MPCA's Closed Landfill Program.
The MPCA alleges that the owners have failed to take steps to remediate the property, complete closure activities, and enter into a binding landfill cleanup agreement with the MPCA under the Closed Landfill Program. The MPCA has taken this action after repeated attempts to work with the owners of Freeway Landfill and Freeway Dump to allow the agency to take the necessary remediation actions at the contaminated landfills. The two unlined sites contain more than 6 million cubic yards of waste spread across 174 acres and the Freeway Landfill is a federal Superfund site. The MPCA will continue to work to ensure that these sites are properly remediated to protect human health and the environment.
MPCA rules and regulations are designed to protect human health and the environment by limiting pollution from facilities like dumps and landfills. Failure to comply with these regulations can be harmful to the health of individuals and the community.