Poison found in backyards of South Minneapolis residents

Tina Shelton moved to the East Phillips neighborhood with her three children a little over a year ago. She likes how close she is to the University of Minnesota, where her daughter attends college. After a long winter and lots of canned vegetables, Tina was looking forward to getting out into her backyard with her green thumb to grow some fresh food. But this spring will be different. Tina and her neighbors just found out, at a public meeting in March, that the soil in many of her neighbors’ backyards is contaminated with arsenic, a poison. Now Tina is nervous about gardening in her own backyard. Tina’s yard hasn’t been tested yet. “I want my yard tested, because of the little ones,” she stated.

“I love to plant and garden, but now that I know about the arsenic, I’m skeptical,” Ms. Shelton said. She has two young children—an 8-month-old and a 1-year-old. “I have little ones, and I don’t want them to get a disorder because of the contamination. I don’t know if it’s safe to let them play in my own backyard,” she said.

From 1938 to 1963, Reade Manufacturing Company operated a grasshopper pesticide operation at East 28th Street and Hiawatha Avenue. Arsenic contamination in the groundwater and soil was discovered in 1994. The site was designated a state Superfund site in 2001. Now residents are learning that for the 30 years before the site was covered with asphalt, winds blew arsenic-laced dust from the Superfund site into residents’ backyards.

Health risks of arsenic — extremely dangerous for children!

Arsenic is an extremely toxic and carcinogenic (cancer-causing) poison. Children are most vulnerable because pound-for-pound they breathe more and eat more than adults. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, swallowing or breathing high levels of arsenic may cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea or a “pins and needles” sensation in hands and feet. Arsenic damages nerves, the stomach, intestines and skin. Chronic exposure to arsenic can have negative health effects like anemia, skin lesions, lung cancer, skin cancer and liver or kidney damage.

Residents in affected homes are being advised to remove their shoes before entering the home to avoid tracking in contaminated dust, to vacuum frequently, and to try to keep their children from playing in the dirt.

“My district is home to many families with young children who are especially at risk,” said Minnesota State Representative Karen Clark, who represents East Phillips. “This summer, children will be playing in backyards with soil laced with arsenic at literally several times the arsenic cleanup level set by the Department of Agriculture,” Representative Clark stated. Last fall, the Department of Agriculture tested 240 randomly chosen backyards for arsenic. The testing area extended west and north from the site, bordered by East 28th Street, Bloomington Avenue, East 23rd Street and Hiawatha Avenue. In an earlier report, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture states that the residential clean-up level for arsenic is 10 parts per million. Levels of more than 110 ppm arsenic—10 times the recommended level — were found in a number of backyards.

“Our neighborhood association asks for more extensive testing of homes and for an immediate cleanup of homes with high levels of arsenic,” said Rebecca Cross, director of the East Phillips Improvement Coalition (EPIC), the organization that represents the neighborhood where the arsenic has been found. “The health of families and young children is our top priority,” she said.

Clean-up of homes with poison is up in the air

What will be done to make sure that residents, and especially young children, are safe? To date, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture have not released plans to address the residential contamination. A plan for additional testing is expected in April, with a plan for cleanup expected in June. It is possible, however, that residential cleanup would not begin for at least another year.

When asked about cleanup of homes, Sonja Vega, On-Scene Coordinator for the U.S. EPA, said, “There is no final answer at this point. We look at the data and, based on that, make a determination on whether there is a need for a removal action. Hopefully in April there will be a plan in place for sampling [of homes], and, based on that, we will determine if there is a need for an action,” Ms. Vega stated. For some residents this leaves important questions unanswered.

“The results of the testing clearly show high levels of arsenic in the backyards of several dozen homes,” stated Katherine Blauvelt, Minnesota Representative for the National Environmental Trust. “The families living in those homes need to know that their children will be safe to go outside in the summer. They need their backyards cleaned up now,” she said.

“The company knew it was poison because it was killing the grasshoppers,” says resident Tina Shelton. “The information needs to be out there so little ones are safe, and so people don’t have to pay for medical expenses later on from the damage it causes, ” she continued.

On Thursday, April 15, The East Phillips Improvement Coalition will host a public presentation by representatives from the Department of Agriculture to discuss cleanup plans for the former insecticide manufacturing site. The presentation will be held at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact the East Phillips Improvement Coalition at 612-278-7155.