The Minnesota Senate and House secured funding on Tuesday to clean up the hazardous waste pit at the Waste Disposal Engineering (WDE) Landfill in Andover. Following the celebratory Governor’s signature of the bill, Senator Jim Abeler issued the following statement:

“Minnesota has made good on a bipartisan commitment to solve the most severe and dangerous pollution issue in the state. The Governor’s signature assures that this 47-year-old problem will be resolved once and for all. This puts an end to decades of stopgap solutions,” said Senator Jim Abeler. “This will ensure that residents of Andover and other surrounding communities have safe drinking water for years to come.”

Anoka County’s WDE Landfill is unique in Minnesota, as it is the only mixed municipal solid waste landfill that was ever permitted for disposing of hazardous waste in the state. In 2011, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were discovered leaking from the hazardous waste pit. Systems are now in place to control contamination leaking from the barrels that were dumped there, but these systems are expensive costing the state $600,000 a year. Additionally, the systems are preventative and do not clean up the actual source of the pollution raising the question of what consequences would emerge if they were ever to fail. Further compounding the issue is that the landfill is now largely surrounded by residential areas, including schools, making the project the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) top priority among the 110 landfills observed in its program.

Governor Walz signed the bill into law on Tuesday morning in a ceremony surrounded by Senator Abeler, Representative Scott and a group of other bipartisan lawmakers. With the funding secured the MPCA believes it can complete the project within the next year with work beginning in the fall of 2019