Metro briefs: Robbinsdale to clean up apartment site polluted by former dry cleaning business

Robbinsdale has obtained a $10,500 state grant to mitigate chemical vapors under a senior apartment building that once was the site of a dry cleaning business.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found the chemical tetrachloroethylene, used as a dry cleaning fluid, in the unoccupied basement of the Broadway Court Senior Apartments. The dry cleaning business was removed in the 1990s, according to a city memorandum.

City Manager Marcia Glick emphasized that low levels of the chemical were found and that it was not an emergency situation. Technological improvements made it possible to detect the chemical now.

Tetrachloroethylene can cause neurological problems, including vision changes, in high levels of concentration, according to the state Department of Health.

Katrina Pross

The Dakota County Board last week approved a one-year moratorium on new wells that draw more than 10,000 gallons a day or a million gallons a year, in response to a local company's plan to dig two wells and ship millions of gallons of water by rail to the Southwest.

That proposal by Empire Building Investments, the real estate arm of Lakeville-based Progressive Rail, surfaced last fall before state officials shot it down. Some county officials said they had heard a similar proposal was brewing, and the moratorium was designed to allow time to research the potential effects of new wells on the county's water supply.

The temporary ban does not apply to new wells dug to replace existing ones, or to irrigation wells.

Erin Adler

Scandia has purchased a reconditioned 1980 Zamboni ice resurfacing machine for the Leonard Wojtowicz skating rink, replacing the city's worn 1964 model.

The City Council unanimously approved the $18,200 purchase at its April 21 meeting.

Parks and recreation committee chair Terry Gorham told the council that a replacement had been discussed for a couple of years. Repairing the 1964 machine would only get harder as time passed because of the difficulty of finding replacement parts, he said.

City officials expect the 1980 model Zamboni to last another 20 years.

Matt McKinney

The Anoka County Board has decided it's a good time to start a $6.5 million project to repair and upgrade the popular Bunker Beach Water Park in Coon Rapids, which is closed for the summer because of the pandemic.

Work can begin earlier than expected because the park is closed, said county Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Perry. Most of the work should be done by next May.

Though the board unanimously approved the project in March, some commissioners expressed concern about spending millions on the water park during the economic downturn. But Perry said the board took no action to delay the work at a recent closed meeting to discuss the legal implications of changing the scope of the project.

Kim Hyatt