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Sherburne County approves $22,500 contract to sample residential wells near closed VONCO landfill
Summary
The board approved a $22,500 scope of work with Houston Engineering to sample residential wells downgradient of the closed VONCO construction-and-demolition landfill in Big Lake; testing will include PFOS and be funded from solid-waste surcharge fees.
Sherburne County planning and zoning staff asked the board to approve a $22,500 scope of work with Houston Engineering to sample residential wells downgradient of the closed VONCO construction-and-demolition landfill in Big Lake. Hydrogeologist June Volkers told the board the sampling will test many of the same parameters used at the landfill (volatile organic compounds, dissolved metals, field parameters) and that PFOS testing is being added this year.
Volkers said the program is ongoing (monitoring began in 2012) and this year the county added three residential wells to address potential gaps along the groundwater flow path toward the river. The sampling will be paid from solid-waste surcharge fees; staff said there have been no exceedances of health-risk limits to date, aside from naturally occurring manganese.
Commissioners asked whether nitrates were included (they are) and whether the newly added wells were due to development or to fill monitoring gaps; staff said they added wells to close potential monitoring gaps. The board voted to approve the scope of work.
Staff emphasized the county maintains a solid-waste fund for monitoring and potential cleanup needs and cautioned that remediation could be expensive if contamination were found.
