The Deets

This is the first report I’ve seen from a newly smoke-free area of the state. Apparently, life has indeed gone on without smoking in bars and restaurants:

New faces, atmosphere since ban on smoking

“The first few weeks, there was an initial buzz where that’s all everyone was talking about,” Shol said. “But then things got back to normal. We haven’t lost any regulars. We gained a few we haven’t seen in a while — they couldn’t come in here because of the smoke because they had health restrictions.”

“It smells good and I can breath better,” said one Viking regular, who wished to remain anonymous. “It’s not so smoky.” However, she said, she wouldn’t have stopped patronizing the Viking even if it hadn’t gone smoke-free.

It’s funny that some people were told not to go into smoky bars by their doctors. That’s kind of like the warnings on the side of cigarette packs. You may not want to smoke if you’re pregnant. Actually, you may not want to smoke if you’re lung-dependent.

Check out the headline in the story below, then read the first paragraph:

Addresses with “North” are not found in South Minneapolis.

Dear KSTP, notice where this block is in relation to downtown Minneapolis:

This is actually their 2nd revision of the headline. It was originally “S. Minneapolis” but I refreshed the page before grabbing the screenshot.

Update: Now KSTP has removed the location within Minneapolis where the shooting took place from the headline:

Why remove the directional qualifier? Minneapolis is a pretty large area to use to describe where a double murder took place.

Val sent over an Edwards highlight from last night’s debate:

He makes a good point. Who is setting public policy in the United States these days? Is the public really being served, or are corporations with a vested interest in the status quo running the show?

I had a chance to attend the EPA’s presentation on the state of the arsenic clean-up in South Minneapolis tonight at the YWCA. Quite a few questions were answered.

How did the choose the testing boundary?

They used computer modeling to determine likely air dispersion patterns and later adjusted that to test a full-radius around the test site rather than just likely wind patter directions.

What did the contamination pattern tell them?

An air dispersion pattern should leave a pattern of high concentration levels near the site, tapering off to lower levels as one moves away from the site. However, the actual patter was described by Timothy Prendiville from the EPA as a “buckshot” pattern. Prendiville explained that this suggests arsenic may have been introduced onto some high testing properties from sources other than the CMC plant. For example, one of the highest results tested at 2800ppm on a property near the perimeter of the testing boundary.

What is the clean-up plan?

Properties testing at 95ppm or higher have been cleaned up or will be by the end of 2008. Additional properties will be cleaned up when funding becomes available (2009).

How many additional properties?

197 properties tested at 95ppm or higher.
411 properties tested at 25ppm or higher
541 properties tested at 16ppm or higher

16ppm is considered the “background” level for this area, or what could be considered the naturally occurring level. That doesn’t guarantee that all properties hitting that level will be cleaned up. We were told tonight that the final recommendation for clean-up standards will fall between 16-25ppm.

As a reminder, here is a chart I put together based on arsenic concentrations used in other clean-ups around the country:

How much does this cost to clean up?

$15,000-$20,000 per property. So the difference between cleaning the neighborhoods from 25ppm to 16ppm is approx $2.6 million.

How to be safe

Here is a breakdown of the biggest risk factors for poisoning yourself:

2/3 Ingestion (don’t eat the dirt - and make sure kids don’t either)
1/4 Garden Vegetables (don’t grow plants in contaminated soil)
1/25 Through Skin (don’t walk around barefoot or crawl on contaminated soil)
1/2000 Dust inhalation (don’t breath?)

The point here is that all of these are prevented by reclaiming a property.

Age of Home

Properties with homes younger than 50 years do not seem to have arsenic problems. They have theories on why this is, such as turnover of the soil during construction, but no hard conclusions. Perhaps it’s because there simply are few homes that young in the surrounding test area?

Missing data

There are approximately 100 properties in the test areas that weren’t tested either due to refusal by owners to cooperate, angry dogs in the yard, etc. So there may be additional properties coming into the results at a later date.

Buying or selling a home in the test area?

If your home has been tested, you should have received a letter from the EPA with your results. As I understand it, this need to be included in your truth in housing statement to sellers. If you threw it away, the EPA can hook you up with a copy.

What can you do?

After this round of open houses (check The Deets’ calendar for additional dates) there will be another round of presentations where the EPA will explain which arsenic level (from the 16-25ppm level) they’ve chosen to use as a clean-up standard. Public statements will be taken at that time.

City Council Member Gary Schiff was there tonight. He’s represents a large part of the effected area and would be a good guy to talk to about additional proactive steps.

The impression I got from attendees is that this is moving very very slow. The arsenic problem at the plant has been a known problem for 13 years and it’s only is the past few years that any residential property pollution has finally been addressed. Going forward, there are still properties will levels higher than 95ppm that need to be cleaned (36, I believe) along with 344 additional properties that need to be recovered to background levels. The funding for those 344 properties won’t be available until 2009, and it will take years to clean them all. As Gary Schiff’s press release earlier today explained, it could take a decade to finally wrap up this clean-up effort.

Lead

One last note. It was mentioned that arsenic isn’t the only contaminant that’s found in the soil of South Minneapolis yards. Lead is very common. Especially in the yards of older homes since they’ve likely been painted many times with lead based paints.

As Kate pointed out in the comments, there is an open house at the YWCA at Lake & Hiawatha tonight to update the community on the state of the clean-up funding and efforts.

Minneapolis Council Member Gary Schiff emailed out an update as well:

EPA to announce major expansion of arsenic cleanup

For information regarding soil sampling or for a copy of a property’s results contact Tim Prendiville.

The south Minneapolis arsenic cleanup that began three years ago is about to get much larger, Environmental Protection Agency representatives will tell residents at a public meeting on Tuesday, October 30th at the YWCA, 2121 East Lake Street at 7:00 p.m. Cleanup managers will discuss the results of a recently completed health risk assessment, and take input on future cleanup which could eventually extend to another 541 residential properties. Total cleanup costs have exceeded $3 million to date.

Designation of the site to the Superfund National Priorities List last month resulted in eligibility for the cleanup of properties with soil contamination below an arsenic concentration of 95 parts per million. Approximately 130 properties with concentrations greater than 95ppm have already been cleaned up, with 36 more slated for 2008. “As a result of Superfund status, more properties may now be eligible for cleanup, depending on the final concentration level chosen.” Council Member Gary Schiff said. “Our hope is that we won’t have to carry our concern for our children to our grandchildren. However, unless the EPA can cleanup more than 70 properties per year, the process could take a decade to complete.”

The EPA will also hold general open houses to give residents an opportunity to talk to EPA representatives about the project. The open houses are on Tuesday, November 13 from 4:00 to 6:00p.m.at East Lake Library located at 2707 East Lake St., Wednesday, November 14 from 2:00 to 4:00p.m.and 6:00 to 8:00p.m.at Powderhorn Park located at 3400 15th Ave. S. and Thursday, November 15 from 2:00 to 4:00p.m.and 6:00 to 8:00p.m.at the Franklin Avenue Safety Center located at 1201 E. Franklin Ave.

My reading of this tells me that the most contaminated properties today have more than 95ppm concentrations of arsenic. By the end of 2008 all properties known to have 95ppm or higher will be cleaned up. However, this doesn’t account for unknown properties outside the current testing boundaries that could test at that level.

The good news is that it looks like we’ll be receiving additional funding to clean up more properties below the 95ppm level. How many? That depends on what level of arsenic in the soil is deemed safe by the EPA for Minneapolis residents. Here is where they’ve set the bar in the past:

The question to ask tonight is, “What is the arsenic concentration of the 541st property that could eventually be cleaned up?” Then check to see where it would fall on the above chart.

Tonight is the first of 6 open houses, as Council Member Schiff mentions in his press release. I’ve added all the dates to the Deets Calendar.

The final hill at the Marine Corps Marathon is pretty darn steep. This illustrates the point quite well:

Semper Fidelis, originally uploaded by edkohler.

Nathan was right. This is an awesome marathon course. I was still putting my post race bag in the delivery truck when the gun went off.

Running down Constitution Avenue past the Washingtom Memorial was my favorite part.

The wheels came off passing the Pentagon between 23-25. Pride alone made my legs shuffle the last 1.2 miles to the finish.

My legs have never hurt this much post race.

The most emotional part of the race was reading the signs of inspiration on the backs of racers. While climbing at mile 2, I followed a woman who’s sign said she was running for her husband who was killed in Iraq. I saw way too many of those signs on runners.

Who Would Jesus Vote For? gives 10 reasons why gay marriage is UnAmerican, including:

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

and

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

Now I feel informed.

via Reddit.

If you get shot in the leg, twice, but won’t cooperate with police about why you got shot, where you were when you got shot, or who shot you, you have bigger problems than being shot? That’s not good:

31st Av/California St NE: Officers responded to North Memorial Hospital in early morning hours to gunshot victim who reported being at large warehouse party at unknown NE Mpls address; victim sustained 2 non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to right leg that; victim became uncooperative during report; no suspect information available

CID investigating

Seriously, you have to cooperate with cops if you want to people who shot you to be caught:

34th/Emerson Avs N: Officers responded to 3400 blk Colfax Av N on reported shooting, discovered victim had been transported to North Memorial Hospital by others after suffering non-life threatening head, arm wounds; officers learned victim shot while leaving party; officers unable to locate crime scene

CID investigating

It’s nice to know that a criminal has multiple weaknesses. If you can’t catch him in a gun bust, just set up a meth deal instead:

E Lake/Franklin Av: Officers, in coordination with ATF, US Marshall, SWAT, K9, 1st Precinct arranged to buy gun from known seller (previously convicted of 5 felonies), wanted on current warrant; seller did not show for meeting; later officers set up drug buy instead, suspect arrested attempting to buy methamphetamine; remanded to custody of US Marshall

Anyone know if charges were filed in this Critical Mass scuffle?

22nd/EmersonAvs S: Victim attempted to drive through intersection which was blocked by bicyclists participating in “Critical Mass” ride; as victim was driving through, biker tried to grab him by throat inside through vehicle window; several other bikers also damaged vehicle

An “awling” near Minnehaha Liquors?

Investigating: Arrested/ASSAULT: 31st/Minnehaha Av: Victim walking to store when ordered to give up property by suspect; victim resisted, resulting in suspect stabbing him several times in the torso with an awl-type weapon; victim transported to HCMC with non-life-threatening wounds; no leads in case

What do you think are the most common reasons why someone who’s been shot won’t cooperate with the police?