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enMinnesota Pollution Control Agency Duluth Office 1525 Lake Avenue South I Suite 400 I Duluth,PIN 55802 1218-723-4660 800-657-3864 1651-282-5332 TTY I www pca state.mn.us I Equal Opportunity Employer May 16, 2013 Mr. Grant Fernelius City of New Brighton 803 Old Highway 8 NW New Brighton, MN 55112 RE: NW Quadrant—Commercial Redevelopment,Old Highway 8, New Brighton Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Project Number VP18560 Landfill Gas Control and Environmental Covenants Dear Mr. Fernelius: The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency(MPCA)staff in the Site Remediation and Redevelopment Section has reviewed the May 9,2013,electronic mail message (e-mail) correspondence from Barr Engineering(Barr), on behalf of the City of New Brighton (City).This letter is in response to Barr's e-mail and the meeting MPCA held with Barr on May 8, 2013. MPCA acknowledges the significant efforts the City has undertaken to investigate and,as appropriate, remediate environmental concerns at the Northwest Quadrant Site (Site).Cities often have financial constraints and budgeting issues that limit its ability to develop parcels of property that have or have had environmental contamination.The MPCA's intent is to assist the City as it addresses the environmental concerns currently before it. The MPCA does not intend to place undue focus on differences in interpretation of the February 2008 Response Action Plan (RAP). Rather,the MPCA's focus remains on the City fulfilling its responsibilities to obtain liability assurance. Under Minn.Stat. §115B.175,in order to obtain protection from liability,the City must"...remove or remedy all known releases and threatened releases at an identified area of,real property in accordance with a voluntary response action plan approved by the commissioner." On May 15, 2008, MPCA staff approved the RAP that outlines the remedies and conditions that must be met to remediate the Site. When data indicated that the remedial actions conducted by the City as part of the approved RAP were not effective, MPCA staff requested additional work by letter dated May 16,2012;to date the City has not completed this work.At this time,the City is not in compliance with the terms and conditions of the RAP. With that said, however, Barr submitted a draft figure at the May 8, 2013, meeting showing the proposed location of passive vents that could be located in the fill. This proposed concept is consistent with MPCA requests for additional landfill gas remedial measures at the Site and could comply with the terms and conditions of the RAP to meet the environmental concerns.