Fridley Mayor on Superfund Sites, Carbon Filters and Erin Brockovich
Fridley Patch spoke with Mayor Scott Lund after Brockovich's town hall meeting.
Fridley Mayor Scott Lund talked to Patch after the Erin Brockovich town hall meeting about the possibility of installing carbon filters to prevent the pollutant TCE from reaching drinking-water taps in Fridley homes.
Asked about the treatment of Fridley city government during the meeting, "I think that they were kind to us, I think that they were fair," he said of Brockovich and her environmental investigator Bob Bowcock.
Fridley officials, like their state-government counterparts, did not participate in the Brockovich meeting. City Council Member-at-large Bob Barnette was also in attendance, as were several other state and local officials and candidates for office (see interviews here).
See also:
- VIDEO: Erin Brockovich Speaks in Fridley
- STORY: Brockovich talks litigation, pollution, health problems
- VIDEO: Reaction to the Brockovich townhall meeting from attendees.
- PHOTOS: Erin Brockovich at Fridley High School
- VIDEO: Fridley Mayor on the Brockovich Cancer Investigation
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George Linngren
5:54 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
Mayor, i think Fridley should just go ahead and bond for the upgrades to the plants and raise the taxes 100.00 a year and increase the water rates to 3 times what they are now to get the filters in. After all , Everyone is saying you can't put a price on safety. I think all the residents would be behind you 100 % and why have the someone else pay for it, let the users cover the costs. I would love to see the protests then from the hypocrites
Julie Knutson
6:02 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
That may be true about the expense of that type of water filteration....but this is where these major Fortune 100 companies can step in and pay their dues for what they have not done.
George Linngren
6:17 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
why is it up to them to pay for this when they have nothing to do with it. have fridley pay for it now and if they get a grant, then lower the water bills. this is what the cluster people want, i would think they would not care what the cost is for the safety of their
families
Julie Knutson
6:55 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
what?? George..that doesn't even make sense!! They had everything to do with it...they created the mess and didn't clean it up!! How do you know what the "cluster people want"? Were you even at the meeting last night??
George Linngren
7:39 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
Hello it was on stream, Can you name these fortune 100 companies that polluted the ground and water? I seen bob saying that they wanted to start legal action if nothing else is done, that they wanted filters put on the treatment plants and i saw people uninformed people ask some stupid questions and give statements. If you can prove who polluted the ground and water, by all means pass that info onto Bob,and the city ,state and federal agencies for cost recovery,until then all your spouting is rhetoric about "those companies" The only ones i know of are the ones who owned the Superfund sites and they have been working on cleaning them up along with the government agencies.
Mandy Meisner
8:03 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
Julie, ideally I agree with you. Those responsible should untimately be paying (allegedly big corporations). In reality though, it could take years, more than a decade for them to actually pay anything, as we have to prove it first.
If the residents of Fridley want carbon filters, then I think we have a right to ask for them and recieve them, but we need to understand what that might mean (significantly higher water bills, cuts somewhere else, etc.), becasue we cannot rely on "the polluters" paying for it in any timely fashion.
Again, this is a complicated issue, with the solutions being complicated as well. I think most will agree, that demanding carbon filters be put in the next day, or (else) demand the water be shut off to the entire City is bit of a stretch (as recommended by Mr. Bowcock)...
Julie Knutson
11:05 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
Of course I know that....I was just being facetious....yes..this is going to take some time to deal with this. Carbon filters would be a good thing for Fridley. I sure don't want my folks to be drinking water with any amount of TCE in it or anyone else for that matter. I also think that Mr. Bowcock was being the same...but it did stress the seriousness of the matter though.
Mandy Meisner
4:57 pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
For the record, I agree with you, I'd like to learn more about what it means to put in carbon filters for us.
Overall, I actually thought they presented pretty fairly, and I'm glad I came to listen. There were a few inflammatory comments, but I expected some, given their perspective.
For example, the idea that we should not accept anything less, other than NO contaminents being present what-so-ever in our water (while ideal), seems unrealistic. Carbon filters will leave trace amounts of chemicals too. We're bombarded with carcinogens everyday, naturally occurring and manufactured.
As a parent, there is no better "hot button" than to imply something will harm my children. While it's partly based in fact (TCE is bad for you), I think it was a bit manipulative becasue our water is SAFE, although not perfect. Combine this emotional presentaion with cancer, and we (understandably) feel panic and outrage.
I don't think Mr. Bowcock was being facetious, I think he was purposfully trying to motivate action. I say this without any anger, I understand this is his job, and he's a smart guy.
My understanding, is that New Brighton was approved for carbon filters becasue their water was so bad, where Fridley's is very "good". Not becasue Fridley hasn't been trying.
jeff loven
12:11 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
I would skip concerns with water and now look at soil vapor intrusion as a concern