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MPCA Tests Air National Guard Wells

By KBJR Manager

Credit: MN Air National Guard

Members of the 148th Fighter Wing, board a C-17 bound for Tyndall Air Force Base, FL. from Duluth Minn. to participate in training exercise Combat Archer January 22, 2010. Combat Archer will be the first operational test of the new Block 50 F-16 Falcons. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Donald Acton/released)

January 24, 2011 Updated Jan 24, 2011 at 1:39 PM CDT

In July, the Minnesota National Guard announced that residents living north of the Minnesota Air National Guard base may receive a request from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency requesting their wells be sampled as part of a ground water receptor survey.

On Friday, the MPCA mailed residents the results of the survey.

15 wells were sampled, of which 12 had no perflourochemechicals present. Three wells contained traces of PFCs that were below Minnesota Department of Health health based risk limits. Residents can expect their wells to be retested in the future as an effort to document and changes in PFC levels.

The MPCA requested the sampling in order to monitor an Installation Restoration Program site on Duluth International Airport property.

The site was used to train active duty Air Force and Air National Guard fire fighters from 1960 to 1987

During this training, small volumes of fuels, solvents and lubricants were burned. The fires were extinguished with an aqueous film forming foam which is suspected to contain PFCs.

The site was previously investigated in 1993, 1995 to 2001, and again in 2007.

In 2007, five of six test locations at the site indicated extremely low levels of PFCs. As a result, the MPCA directed a survey be completed within a 1.75 mile radius of the site.

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