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When disaster strikes, this Minnesota team of experts steps in to respond and craft an action plan

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When flooding inundated the small southern Minnesota town of Jackson, city and county leaders put out a desperate plea for help. Members of the state’s All Hazards Incident Management Team (AHIMT) answered the call.

The little known but vitally important team, activated when disaster strikes, helps marshal resources, draft communication strategies and formulate action plans that local officials may not be able to carry out on their own.

“You usually don’t have lots of sandbags lying around or pumps on hand,” said Gwen Martin, a deputy commander of an AHIMT unit on the scene in Jackson. “We identify what needs to be done. We look at logistics and ask do we have the stuff to make it happen. We spend a lot of time on the phone.”

And on the road, too. Over the past decade, team members have been dispatched to Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast, wildfires and civil unrest. They provided support during the 2018 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, and last month were in Greenfield, Iowa, to assist officials after the town was decimated by one of the strongest tornadoes reported this year in the United States. But most of their work takes place here at home.

In Jackson, where even the county emergency manager was on the front lines filling sandbags, the goal was to protect critical infrastructure from floodwaters: a water treatment plant, an elementary school that doubles as a day care, and the town’s lone grocery store and pharmacy. And to keep as many residents as possible in their homes.

Martin said AHIMT, based in Anoka County, set up its trailers, generators, computers and printers and went to work alongside Jackson County officials. The team brought in some of its own equipment, and called other suppliers to bring in more. They got the Army Corps of Engineers to build levies and berms and pump water away so residents could still flush their toilets, Martin said.

When water closed two key bridges in Jackson, AHIMT helped county officials divvy up assets to ensure both sides of town were covered should another emergency arise. To be prepared, they called fire departments in from Minneapolis and Luverne to bring boats and crews trained in swift-water rescues to be on standby.

Team members also were in Windom, Okabena and Heron Lake last week, Martin said.

From its command center, Martin said AHIMT keeps track of everything from costs to who is out in the field and who may need to go get some sleep. The team also helps craft messages to be disseminated to the public.

Though that often means long days, it’s not just the urgency of the moment that is on Martin’s mind.

“We look at what do we need for the next day,” Martin said. “That keeps things moving along.”

AHIMT has a roster of about 100 people statewide with expertise ranging from law enforcement to firefighting to administration, and from IT to finance to public health. Somewhat like the National Guard, they volunteer their services when calls come in to help their fellow Minnesotans in need.

“We are passionate about incident management,” Martin said.

Jackson County Emergency Manager Gary Reif said he was extremely thankful for AHIMT’s help in planning and the tactical response that followed.

“I don’t know what we would have done without their assistance,” said Reif, admitting he had heard of AHIMT before the flood but didn’t know much about what they could offer. “They came with knowledge you can’t imagine. This group basically kept us above water.”

As the Des Moines River begins to slowly recede, AHIMT will leave Jackson on Saturday, knowing they’ve done their part to make a bad situation better, and left a road map for local officials to follow.

“We set them up for success. Martin said.

Reif concurred.

“That is what they did,” he said.



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Settlement would give $13 million to U of M for UMore pollution cleanup

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The University of Minnesota would get $13 million to put toward pollution cleanup at UMore Park under a proposed settlement with E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. and the federal government, ending a dispute over contamination left in the south metro by a World War II-era gunpowder plant.

DuPont designed, built and ran the Gopher Ordnance Works smokeless gunpowder facility on the site, which once spanned 13,600 acres in Rosemount and what was then Empire Township. The plant was briefly operational from November 1944 through August 1945. Some of the land was then returned to farmers, but about 8,000 acres was deeded to the U.

The proposed consent decree, which summarizes the settlement, is open to public comment until July 29, and then a public hearing will be held Sept. 4, before a judge decides whether to approve it.

“We’re happy to have reached an agreement with the federal government and hope for the court’s approval,” said Jake Ricker, a University of Minnesota spokesperson.

The $13 million payment to the U would come “in return for a release of claims against the United States and DuPont,” Ricker said in an email.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the proposed settlement. Attorneys for the company referred questions to Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, and representatives there declined to comment.

The UMore Park land has had several uses after being deeded to the U in 1947.

The U.S. Army and Navy both leased land from the U for a period after that; hazardous substances were disposed of during those times, the lawsuit alleges. The U used the land mostly for lab waste and agricultural research for half a century.

About 2,800 acres in the area became the Vermillion Highlands, a wildlife and recreation area jointly administered by the U and the Department of Natural Resources.

More recently, the U had planned an ambitious, environmentally friendly development for 20,000 to 30,000 people at UMore, but those plans have stalled. Gravel mining in the area began more than a decade ago.

University officials filed the lawsuit in 2017, seeking to recover costs associated with cleaning up pollution on the property.

Cleanup work ahead

Because Gopher Ordnance Works was “never fully activated … the magnitude of contamination at this site is actually pretty limited,” said Tom Higgins, manager of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Superfund remedial section.

But UMore is on Minnesota’s Superfund list of hazardous waste sites being investigated and cleaned up through state and federal programs. The pollution — mostly arsenic, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — contaminated the soil in the north-central part of UMore, Higgins said.

The U’s lawsuit says it has performed “an extensive environmental investigation at a cost in excess of several million dollars to determine the source, nature and extent” of contamination on the site. Elsewhere in the lawsuit, the U said it has spent at least $3 million investigating the site.

DuPont and the United States both filed multiple countersuits, saying the site was eligible for assistance through the federal Superfund law. The United States also filed a counterclaim saying the U breached contracts that stated it would hold the federal government harmless for any liability related to pollution.

Higgins said the U has already gathered a trove of data about the site and is still working on a risk assessment and feasibility study of possible cleanup methods.

The easiest way to clean up contaminated soil near the surface is to excavate and remove it, Higgins said. From there, contaminants can be burned off “by applying tremendous heat” or the soil can be taken to a landfill approved to take hazardous waste.

“It’s my hope that we eventually can delist it from the state Superfund [list],” Higgins said, adding that the consent decree is a “net positive for everybody.”

Dakota County Commissioner Bill Droste, who served as Rosemount’s mayor for two decades, called the proposed settlement “a good thing,” noting that next year will mark 80 years since WWII ended. There were once 900 buildings on-site; many still remain on the east side of UMore in the form of concrete structures and foundations, he said.

Rosemount City Administrator Logan Martin said, “We’ve always wanted to see UMore get addressed as needed and I think it’s wonderful to see it happen.”

Martin said he hopes the proposed settlement could make way for more development of the land, if that’s the U’s vision.

The U recently sold off UMore land for two big projects: Amber Fields, a 479-acre housing development that borders Dakota County Technical College and is south of 145th Street E., and the Meta data center, slated for 280 acres in the property’s northeast section.



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Minneapolis park workers announce weeklong strike beginning July 4

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The union representing more than 300 Minneapolis park workers announced Tuesday they will strike for one week beginning July 4, after seven months of negotiations with the city yielding no new labor contract.

At a news conference Tuesday, AJ Lang, the business manager for LIUNA Local 363, said that for now, the union is keeping striking activity to one week to minimize disruptions for residents, although he acknowledged the July 4 holiday is the busiest time of year for parks in the city.

Workers for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board have for years called for improved wages, health insurance and safety precautions.

Lang said the union has agreed to eight out of 10 proposals from the board, and the board has not agreed to any of the union’s.

In a statement, the board said it made a final offer Monday night of a 10.25% wage increase over a three-year period.

This story will be updated. Check back later for updates.



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1 killed, 2 critically injured in head-on crash on western Wisconsin highway

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One person was killed and two were critically injured in a head-on collision on a western Wisconsin highway, officials said.

The crash occurred shortly after 11:30 a.m. Monday about 9 miles south of Turtle Lake on Hwy. 63, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

An SUV driver heading south crossed over the center line and hit a northbound car, the sheriff’s office said.

The car’s driver was killed, and a passenger in the vehicle suffered life-threatening injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. The SUV driver also was critically injured, the sheriff’s office added.

Officials have yet to release the identities of any of the vehicles’ occupants.



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