Star Tribune
Bill would provide Andover with $9M to tackle water contamination issues
The north metro city of Andover could get $9 million in state funding to address water contamination issues that have prevented some residents from being able to safely consume tap water in their homes.
State Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, on Tuesday introduced a bill that would provide some of the money needed to connect about 50 homes in the Red Oaks neighborhood to the city’s water system. Residents there have been forced to use bottled water to drink, cook food and brush their teeth since high levels of the cancer-causing 1,4-dioxane were found in private wells.
“These contaminated wells are a public safety hazard for people in our district, not to mention the significant inconveniences they are causing,” Niska said. “Safe drinking water is one of those things you take for granted, until you don’t have it.”
Getting state funding to connect homes to the city’s water system and addressing what caused private wells to become contaminated is a top priority for Andover, said City Administrator Jim Dickinson.
“I’m positive it is moving forward,” Dickinson said of the bill. “It has bipartisan support.”
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health found concentrations of 1,4-dioxane above 1 microgram per liter in homeowners’ wells while conducting testing near the closed Waste Disposal Engineering Landfill in August 2021. Anything above 1 microgram per liter is cause for health concerns, according to the Health Department.
Retesting of wells in June and July in the neighborhood off Bunker Lake and Crosstown boulevards showed little change, the MPCA said.
The agency has provided bottled water for the past 1 1⁄2 years to homes where sampling values were detected above safe levels. It will also provide bottled water to any additional homes found to have unsafe 1,4-dioxane levels as testing continues, the agency said.
Use of the synthetic industrial chemical as a stabilizer for chlorinated solvents ended in 1995, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Drinking contaminated water is the primary way people are exposed to 1,4-dioxane, the MPCA said.
In 2019, Gov. Tim Walz declared the defunct Andover landfill, now a Superfund site managed by the MPCA, one of the most toxic sites in the state. More than 6,600 barrels of hazardous waste were disposed of there in the 1970s. The 2019 bonding bill included $10 million to begin cleaning it up.
But officials are not positive the 1,4-dioxane contamination is coming from the landfill, and recent MPCA data indicated the landfill is not the source, an agency spokesman said.
“Additional site investigation is necessary to determine the source and fully define the extent of the contamination,” the spokesman said.
In the meantime, the MPCA will continue to conduct routine sampling in the neighborhood. The agency also is coordinating with the EPA to evaluate potential sources of contamination in the area.
“Those investigations can continue, and should, but not to the detriment of people in our district continuing to suffer health risks,” Niska said. “Public safety is a chief responsibility of government and we owe it to the people we serve to abide by that principle.”
Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, previously authored legislation regarding this issue and is a co-author of Niska’s current bill. Sen. Cal Bahr, R-East Bethel, is carrying a companion bill in the Senate.
Niska said he hopes to soon bring his bill to the House Capital Investment Committee with the goal of having it included in a bonding package this session.
The Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
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