MPCA helps small town dig out from decades of gas station pollution

One of the biggest things to happen this summer in the tiny town of Flensburg was a 20-foot-deep hole in the middle of town and the decades-old pollution it removed. In a case where the parties responsible for the contamination were no longer living, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) stepped in to clean the site, a process called remediation.

The project included the rare step of the agency purchasing the land, about 116 miles northwest of St. Paul. The previous owners had operated a gas station there for 17 years. After closing the business, they pulled the tanks out of the ground in 1989 and discovered petroleum contamination in the soil. The MPCA investigated the extent of contamination and damage to drinking water. After the last remaining owner passed away, the family and MPCA made an agreement about purchasing the property so the cleanup could move forward.

Click here to read the original article from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.