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Status of NW Quadrant Environmental Issues New Brighton City Council Work Session March 25, 2008 East Side Redevelopment of the eastern portion of the NW Quadrant will require significant efforts to address the historical environmental impacts, including the Old Miller Dump which extends across roughly 40% of the area. There are also several known petroleum release sites and a small 1950s era dump that are related to the historical business at the Site. Over the past several years, the City has conducted numerous environmental investigations and evaluations as part of the City's acquisition of the former properties. The City has been awarded several environmental grants from local, state, and federal agencies to assist with the cost of environmental investigation and cleanup, and the City anticipates seeking additional funding in the upcoming grant cycles (May 1 and November 1, 2008). In 2007, the City began the cleanup activities in support of recent development. At this time, roughly 10% of the known environmental issues on the east side have been addressed and roughly 15% of the area has been redeveloped into several new stormwater ponds, the expanded Old Highway 8 corridor, and the initial phase of the Transoma development. Based on the current redevelopment concept plan for the remaining areas, a comprehensive cleanup plan for the remaining environmental issues was prepared and submitted to the MPCA for review in February 2008. The City anticipates MPCA's comments/approval of that plan in the next month. Removal of the entire Old Miller Dump to an off-site landfill has been considered, but was found to be prohibitively expensive. Therefore, the cleanup plan for the east side involves more affordable on-site management of the dump and petroleum release areas. The plan will involve excavation of the petroleum release areas and roughly 20% of the dump on its western edges, with on-site consolidation in the future park and redevelopment Block B. There have been in-depth evaluations to determine a good balance between optimizing the cost/extent of dump cleanup and the benefit of freeing up developable land outside the dump foot print. The attached graph summarizes the relationship, and indicates that the current plan is aimed towards the point where the cost of further dump removal would provide diminishing returns in developable land area outside the dump. Essentially, the Old Miller Dump cleanup plan will involve: • reducing the footprint of the dump by removing the thin dump edges to expand the development area beyond the current dump limits • consolidating the excavated dump materials onto the thick portions of the dump • constructing systems to control landfill gas that is generated by the on-going decay of the dump materials • establishing a clean cover over the dump to facilitate the park and development at Block B • constructing the park stormwater pond to serve future east side development An estimated cost range of $5.8M to $10.8M has been developed for implementing the initial dump closure plan this year following the Feb. 2008 RAP. In addition, it is estimated that the net present value of future operation, maintenance, and monitoring costs for the closed dump may range between $0.9M to $4.2M. The key factors associated with the estimated cost range include: CADocuments and Settings\gferne\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK18D\City Council Work Session March 2008.doc Page 1 of 4