EPA To Work With St. Louis Park Residents on Contaminant Testing

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is talking with tenants, landlords and homeowners in the Louisiana Oaks area of St. Louis Park about how to proceed with vapor contaminant testing there later this spring.

As reported by St. Louis Park Patch , the EPA plans on testing an area bounded by 32nd Street West to the north, Highway 7 to the south, Louisiana Avenue to the east and Pennsylvania Avenue to the west in early April. The area was once part of the Reilly Tar & Chemical Corporation site, which was used for coal tar distillation and wood preserving from 1917 to 1972. It was then sold to St. Louis Park and converted to residential and recreational uses.

In a letter to residents, the city said there is no reason to believe chemicals at the site are causing immediate health impacts. The current testing is a follow-up to past work in the area done by the EPA, the city and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

These tests will be voluntary on the part of tenants, landlords and homeowners, said EPA project manager Michelle Kerr. The EPA is looking for consent to do between 30 and 40 individual tests. Residents who do approve a test in their home or apartment shouldn’t expect much of an intrusion. The process typically involves two workers drilling a hole one inch wide and about eight inches deep into basement concrete. The idea is to draw vapors from the ground underneath a property’s foundation. In all, the test takes about a day, much of which is spent simply letting vapors flow from the hole through a tube into a collection jar, which the EPA returns to pick up.

Kerr said this is all part of a continued evaluation of the area, which became a federal Superfund site in 1983. That designation has resulted in millions of dollars spent cleaning up the area, including a 2008 test that sampled soil from nearby . That test concluded the park is safe. The EPA is expanding the scope of that test to include properties around the park, Kerr said.

In particular, the EPA is looking for two types of chemicals—polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). Long-term exposure to high levels of PAH may cause harm to the skin, blood and the body’s ability to fight diseases. Long-term exposure to high amounts of VOC may cause damage to the liver, kidney or central nervous system and also increase the risk of cancer. City officials don't believe people at or near the site are being exposed to PAH or that any exposure to VOC exposure is at a level to raise health concerns.

When samples are collected, it will take six to eight weeks for lab results to come back on what the levels of these two compounds are, Kerr said. If testers discover a significant health risk, Kerr said the EPA would immediately contact residents and install devices in homes and apartments that, essentially, suck the vapors out of the ground and clean the area. Evacuations aren’t typically necessary during this process, Kerr said.

Ardyth Jahnke, who lives on Louisiana Avenue near the testing area, said she is generally comfortable living where she does.

The 73-year-old retiree, who attended a Thursday open house on the testing at the , has lived in the area for 17 years, and she said she had independent testing done before she moved in. She said she would be willing to allow the EPA to use her condominium as a test site.

Jahnke also said she hasn't heard strong concerns from others in the neighborhood. EPA representatives report receiving a few questions by phone or email, none of which have raised serious concerns.