I’ve not seen anything about the Boswell “discharge” lately (that term “discharge” is an improvement over “leak” or “spill,” those sound too dainty!). It seems KAXE is reporting, but STrib and MPR? Concerned, I fired off a missive to the MPCA to get the latest, and turns out, it’s a federal issue, and it’s the EPA in charge:
The July 19 update was jawdropping — the first sentence, confirming the July 20th KAXE report:
MN Power updated the estimated release volume from approximately 1 million gallons of coal residual slurry water to approximately 5.4 million gallons.
5.4 million gallons…
Color me skeptical, but can that be cleaned up? How? What comes to mind is the bogus “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”
Here’s the EPA’s latest update:
July 22 – August 8, 2024: Site Update
Soil excavation in the source area is complete. EPA and MPCA continue to monitor and sample water quality in Blackwater Creek and larger Blackwater Lake area.
The sediment sampling plan for Blackwater Creek has been approved with expected sampling on Friday. EPA, MPCA and LLBO discussed and approved preliminary ground water/geoprobe investigations. To date, more than one million gallons of water from Blackwater Creek has been recovered from three sumps along the shoreline. A plan has been finalized and approved to increase water pumping/recovery to add an additional 500 gpm.
EPA met with Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO) natural resources and wetlands staff, MPCA, MN Power and Barr Engineering to tour the impacted area and focus on Tribal natural resource protection and further defining the nature and extent of the release.
It’s been about a month an a half…
The EPA page bears watching. Once more with feeling:
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