MN Health Dept. Retesting Fridley Drinking Water after Cancer Concerns

The Minnesota Department of Health collected on Monday an “investigative sample” of Fridley’s drinking water, which will be tested for contaminants.

The unscheduled test came in response to concerns raised by , which now has more than 2,000 members and has .

The testing was undertaken at the request of the city of Fridley, said James Kosluchar, the city's public works director. A regularly scheduled annual test for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was already scheduled Monday for Fridley's post-treatment water supply.

Kosluchar said the city decided to collect an additional "grab sample" from raw, untreated water in Well No. 9, one of the eight municipal wells located within the Fridley Commons Park Well Field Superfund site.

Karla Peterson, a toxicologist in charge of community public water at the health department, said Fridley’s water has been tested for TCE, a VOC known to have been released by area Superfund sites, since 1984.

“The city has never exceeded the [federal] standards’ maximum contaminant levels,” she said, though she noted that the city’s water supply has had “detects.”*

Bob Bowcock, Brockovich’s environmental investigator, said that while he was not particularly worried about polluted drinking water in Fridley, his experience with other communities near Superfund sites led him to believe that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) could accumulate in the soil and later seep out as vapors, contaminating indoor air supplies.

The last tests of Fridley’s drinking water were conducted in July 2011, and Peterson said she expected a minimal variance for the new results.

The Department of Health will issue the results in two to three weeks, Peterson said.

In an email on Wednesday, City of Fridley Public Works Director Jim Kosluchar said "The high-quality water distributed by the City of Fridley has consistently met Federal and State drinking water standards."

The City of Fridley website has a page devoted to concerns about water quality, including the three most recent water-quality reports available (see PDFs under photo above to read the reports here online.)

*Correction: Minnesota Department of Health Metro Central District Engineer Isaac “Ike” Bradlich said by email Friday afternoon that the word "defects" in a quote from Carla Peterson, the MDH toxicologist, should be "detects." The post has been changed to reflect that. 

See also:

• Fridley Mayor: Stay Calm and Open-minded on Cancer Concerns
• DOCUMENTS/LINKS: Is There a Cancer Cluster in Fridley?
• Brockovich to Host Fridley Town Hall Cancer Meeting in May: Reports