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Pioneer Press
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has asked the Minnesota Department of Health to conduct a public health assessment of the cooperative that would deal with long-standing air-quality complaints and, for the first time, groundwater contamination concerns.
Residents near ValAdCo's seven hog operations have complained for years about odor problems. After violating hydrogen sulfide standards more than 270 times in 1999 and 2000, ValAdCo agreed in June to pay $125,000 in penalties to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Attorney General Mike Hatch, who still must approve that agreement, is conducting a separate investigation into whether the cooperative near Olivia and similar operations are violating nuisance laws.
Rita Messing, supervisor of the site assessment and consultation unit in the Health Department's environmental health division, said area residents, believing they have gotten no relief from the MPCA, submitted the request to the federal agency this spring. Under a cooperative agreement, the federal agency asked the state to do the work.
Although the Health Department hasn't made a final decision, Messing said it likely will proceed with what essentially is a more formal, deliberate and public review. Not only would such an investigation update an earlier look into air-quality data there, but she said it would address whether ValAdCo's lagoons are leaking into the groundwater, as some nearby residents have alleged.
"That has never been done before by the Health Department,'' Messing said. "People in the area have been complaining that their wells have been contaminated by ValAdCo.''
Monitoring equipment is in place to determine if the lagoons are leaking, but Messing said she isn't sure that data ever has been examined.
Eddie Crum, ValAdCo's chief executive officer, said he welcomes the assessment and thinks it will introduce some science to what has been a contentious debate, but he still believes the company has been singled out for scrutiny. Crum said there have been no air-quality violations there since a nonpermeable cover was placed on the largest lagoon in early June. He added he's confident the monitoring wells will show no sign of contamination.
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