Saving millions for small towns

University of Minnesota graduate student Mindy Erickson in Clay County, Minn., collecting sediment core samples for geochemical analysis.

From eNews, October 30, 2003

Local municipalities can spend more than $1 million to build a treatment facility to reduce the levels of arsenic in its water supply to meet federal regulations. But University of Minnesota student Mindy Erickson has found a cheaper, long-term solution for some small towns.

Erickson, a doctoral candidate in the U's water resources science program, developed a "site investigation procedure" to look for low-arsenic aquifers.

"This is an innovative idea because a 'site investigation' procedure has typically been used to find out where contamination is, say around a hazardous waste site, not where it isn't," she explains.

"Implementing a site investigation is relatively easy because Minnesota has an excellent public database of well records. It takes a couple days of one person's time to identify and sample wells and a couple hundred dollars to analyze a dozen water samples." The method increases the viability of drilling new wells with low-arsenic levels.

"In Minnesota alone, thousands of public and private wells fail to meet the new arsenic maximum contaminant level," she says. "Most arsenic in Minnesota ground water is not connected to a specific source, such as mining waste, hazardous waste sites, pesticide use, or geothermal features. Rather, arsenic contamination in Minnesota ground water is a widespread, naturally occurring phenomenon." According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the health risks from arsenic at the levels typically found in Minnesota are from long-term exposure.

Neilsville is one Minnesota community that has already benefited from Erickson's research. Next spring, it will drill a new, low-arsenic well that will meet the new federal regulation at one-tenth the cost of building a treatment plant. Erickson has also worked with other communities in Minnesota such as Cosmos, Climax, Frost, Ulen, and Elizabeth.

To learn more about the project titled "Arsenic in Minnesota's Groundwater", see http://www.cura.umn.edu/programs/FIRP.html or e-mail Erickson at eric0984@umn.edu.

For a map of arsenic concentrations in public water supplies in the Upper Midwest, see http://www.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/erickson-map.html.