SARTELL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency doesn't consider water from firefighting efforts at the Verso paper mill to be an environmental danger.
The agency isn't requiring firefighters or Verso to contain and test runoff water from the site on the banks of the Mississippi River, said Steve Mikkelson, MPCA spokesman. That's because the mill "was not an obvious environmental threat" like a chemical plant or petroleum storage facility, Mikkelson said.
"The chances of the runoff being a significant threat are so very low that in those cases, we don't require any kind of testing of the runoff water," he said.
It's possible that the water could contain some debris or contaminants, but the MPCA doesn't believe special monitoring is needed, he said.
A state duty officer was notified after Monday's explosion and fire, and an emergency responder from the MPCA's St. Paul office visited the site, Mikkelson said.
After a November 2008 fire at a metal finishing plant in Isle on Lake Mille Lacs, the MPCA did require water to be contained and tested, Mikkelson said. In that case, fire-suppression foam was used, which posed an environmental concern. Foam wasn't used at Verso.
Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes said emergency responders have been monitoring the water coming from the mill, and there are no safety concerns.
Whitney Clark, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Friends of the Mississippi River, isn't questioning the MPCA's assessment, but said it's a "potential concern" that debris or contaminants could get into the storm sewer. Sometimes containment booms or other tactics are used to prevent that from happening, Clark said.
"Most people don't realize that those storm sewers go directly to the rivers untreated," he said.
Due to recent rainfall, the volume of water in the river is very high. That tends to mitigate the impact of an influx of toxic material on organisms in the river, Clark said.
Copyright 2012 - St. Cloud Times, Minn.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
