City water table remains safe from abandoned fuel tanks

TheCity of Grand Marais continues to move toward earning a clean bill of health for the soil underneath the old power plant in the recreation area. City Administrator Mike Roth and Water Superintendent Tom Nelson recently toured the site with the city’s consultant, Environmental Troubleshooters.

“We’ve already made a lot of progress from where we started,” Roth reported to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Wednesday, May 29, 2010. Monitoring was first conducted during the 1990s when the water treatment plant was enlarged and then started again in the mid-2000s when the old power plant was torn down.

The city once had several fuel oil tanks at the site, both above and below the ground, when its power plant was located there. The power plant was built there in the 1930s and the water treatment plant, still in use, has been there since the 1950s. Theold tanks are gone, Roth said, but water table sampling continues to be conducted there according to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) requirements.

Up to 90% of the cost of any necessary cleanup would qualify for Minnesota Department of Commerce Petrofund dollars, Roth said. That fund is generated from taxes on gas and diesel fuel. “It’s kind of the carrot they use with the stick,” Roth said.

Public Utilities Commissioner Tim Kennedy estimated that downtown Grand Marais might have 100 spots where the water table is monitored for seepage from old gasoline storage tanks. Administrator Roth said Grand Marais has had a lot of fuel pumps in different places through the years.

The MPCA requires that the city submit a plan for dealing with the possibility of gas and oil seepage, Roth said. Theplan could be as simple as explaining that in the last 50 years, no contamination has been found. If an earthquake caused the rupture of old tanks that still have oil or gas in them, Roth said, the Minnesota Department of Health could provide funding for cleanup.

If a five-agency joint maintenance facility comes to fruition, city vehicles and equipment now stored in the rec park could be moved. The sewer treatment plant would remain where it is on the east edge of downtown, the new power plant would remain where it is west of town, and the water treatment plant would remain in the rec park where water from Lake Superior is treated for the town’s water supply.