The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Impaired Waters List was released this morning.
At the Star Tribune, Greg Stanley reports in More than 300 polluted lakes and rivers added to Minnesota's impaired waters list:
Another 305 streams, lakes and rivers in Minnesota have become too polluted to meet federal water standards, and will be added to the state's impaired waters list.
The list, updated Monday by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), now includes about 3,000 bodies of water with more than 6,000 specific impairments.
"These are streams with degraded habitat or with too much sediment for fish to find food," said Peter Tester, deputy commissioner of the MPCA. "Many have high bacteria levels that make them unsafe to swim. Many have too many nutrients that grow algae. Some have more than one impairment. That's too many."
Every lake or stretch of river on the list tested too high for at least one pollutant that can harm swimmers, kill off aquatic life or make fish unsafe to eat. The most common problems in recent years have sprouted from pollutants that have many sources, including some from miles away or even from out of state, which makes them especially daunting to regulate.
Much of the Le Sueur River in south central Minnesota, for example, was added to the list because its fish now have too much mercury to be safe to regularly eat. The vast majority of that mercury has been building up slowly over time from air pollution originating outside of Minnesota, according to the MCPA. The mercury is carried in by the wind and lands either directly into Minnesota's rivers and lakes through dust particles, or washes into the water through erosion and runoff after collecting on the soil.
For the first time, the state added rivers and lakes that were impaired by two pollutants that are quickly becoming more of a health and environmental concern: sulfate and chemicals known as PFAS.
Sulfate pollution is high enough in 35 bodies of water, primarily in north eastern Minnesota, to prevent wild rice from growing, according to the updated list.
That pollution is likely coming from mines and wastewater treatment plants, said Catherine Neuschler, who manages water assessment for the MPCA.
The agency is coming up with plans to reduce sulfate contamination in those lakes and streams, which could include new monitoring requirements from companies or cities that may be contributing, she said.
Polyfluoroalkyl substances — also called PFAS and PFOS — are a wide-range of chemicals that don't break down in the environment. They can accumulate in blood and have been linked to certain types of cancer and other health risks. . . .
Earlier in the day, Kirsti Marohn had reported for Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) in Minn. lakes with ‘forever chemicals,’ sulfate added to state’s list of troubled waters:
Minnesota regulators are adding several more lakes and a stretch of the St. Croix River to the state’s list of waters that fail to meet water quality standards due to so-called “forever chemicals” found in fish tissue.
For the first time, a handful of those lakes are outside of the Twin Cities metro area — including Lake Winona in Alexandria, and Wild Rice Lake and Fish Lake north of Duluth.
Also new to the list: dozens of water bodies that have too much sulfate, which threatens wild rice production.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, Minnesota is required every two years to compile a list of lakes, rivers and streams that don’t meet water quality standards. The list must be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state is required to develop plans to clean up water bodies on the list.
In all, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is proposing to add 305 water bodies to its 2022 list of impaired lakes, rivers and streams that fail to meet state water quality standards.
That brings the total number of water bodies on the list to 2,904, with 6,168 impairments. A lake, river or stream can be listed for multiple reasons. . . .
The draft list includes 15 lakes and stretches of river impaired due to PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, a member of the family of human-made chemicals known as PFAS.
The other water bodies added because of PFOS in fish tissue are the St. Croix River from Taylors Falls Dam through Lake St. Croix, and several lakes in the Twin Cities metro, including Lake Phalen, Lake McCarrons and the main bay of Keller Lake, all in Ramsey County.
The new additions would bring to 26 the total number of Minnesota water bodies impaired due to PFOS. Others already listed include the Mississippi River and Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis.
The listings can trigger the Minnesota Department of Health to issue advisories cautioning people to limit the amount of fish they eat from those water bodies.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is a large class of related chemicals widely used in industry and found in many consumer products, including water-repellent fabrics, furniture, carpeting, nonstick cookware and food packaging.
They are extremely persistent, and don’t break down in the environment. PFAS have been found in water, air, fish and soil, as well as the blood of animals and people, all over the globe. Prolonged exposure of some PFAS is linked to health problems, including kidney and thyroid disease, low birth weight and some cancers.
PFOS was one of two PFAS chemicals manufactured for decades by 3M and other companies for use in many products, including firefighting foam used to fight oil fires, especially at airports and military bases. It was phased out of production in the U.S. in the early 2000s.
There are many ways PFAS could be getting into the lakes, said Catherine Neuschler, water assessment supervisor for the MPCA.
“These chemicals really are ubiquitous,” she said. “They're found in so many of our consumer products. They can be transported by air deposition. There's a lot of ways.”
Sources of the PFOS contamination in the Greater Minnesota lakes haven’t been confirmed. However, the Duluth-area lakes are located near the Duluth International Airport, a known site of PFAS contamination linked to the use of firefighting foam in training.
“What all this means is more work is needed to identify and eliminate the sources of PFOS in order to reduce their levels in lakes and rivers and prevent limits being placed on fish consumption,” Nichols said.
Early this year, the MPCA released its PFAS “blueprint” — a plan to identify, manage and clean up the chemicals. Agency officials have said they expect to find more PFAS contamination as they expand monitoring around the state.
Also new to the draft list are 35 lakes listed as impaired for too much sulfate, usually discharged by mines and wastewater treatment plants. The listing could mean stricter permit limits for those facilities.
Last week, the EPA finalized Minnesota’s 2020 impaired waters list after adding 32 water bodies that do not meet the state’s sulfate limit to protect wild rice. The EPA said the state erred by not including them on its original list. . . .
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