Make a mess, clean it up

Star Tribune Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:38:37 GMT
Who should pay to clean up the Washington County landfill?

Some lawmakers say 3M should be held responsible for more than the $8 million they agreed to spend. The total cleanup costs are estimated at $23.5 million or more. Taxpayers could be on the hook to pay $15 million or more toward the cost of cleaning up a former landfill in Washington County contaminated with 3M industrial chemicals. As part of a $1 billion bonding bill, lawmakers have proposed borrowing that much to dig up and make the landfill leak proof, while 3M provides $8 million under an agreement with the state last year. But some lawmakers say that 3M should bear the entire cost for the Washington County landfill--estimated at $23.5 million or more--since the main reason for the cleanup is the contamination of groundwater from 3M's chemicals. "It seems as though the taxpayers and the citizens are getting fleeced because it clearly is 3M's problem and their pollution, and now we're paying for it," said Sen. Katie Sieben, DFL-Newport. But the company maintains that the former Washington County landfill, like all other closed public landfills, is the legal responsibility of the state -- not of the companies that sent wastes to it. "3M was under no obligation to pay anything, and yet we have volunteered to make an $8 million contribution to the state of Minnesota," company spokesman Bill Nelson said.

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