Former Rochester Dry Cleaner Site Added to Superfund List

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has officially added a downtown Rochester property to the agency’s Superfund contamination priority list.

Cleanup Site is Along North Broadway

The MPCA issued a news release today announcing that the former Dison’s Cleaners and Launderers property is now included on its Permanent List of Priorities. The property is located along the east side of North Broadway between Civic Center Drive and 2nd Street Northeast. The designation also covers an adjacent property located just east of the former cleaning business.

According to the news release, the contamination at the site involves tetrachloroethylene/perchloroethylene (PCE or Perc), which was discovered in the soil at the site in 2013. The contamination occurred while the business was in operation from 1952 to 2019.

MPCA Says Property Owner Stop Addressing Contamination

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says the Rochester property was sold, and the owners enrolled in the Superfund program in 2016 as a Cooperative Responsible Party, which conducts investigations and performs cleanup with oversight by the MPCA. A vapor mitigation system was installed in 2020, after which the property owner stopped addressing the contamination.

Harmful Vapors

The statement says the MPCA then took over the investigation and conducted soil vapor testing to determine whether harmful vapors are migrating into nearby buildings. The MPCA says the results indicate the need for off-site soil vapor investigations to “assess potential risks to adjacent buildings.”

Groundwater Concerns

The news release says nearby residents and businesses have been informed about the ongoing testing at the site. It also notes that a shallow bedrock aquifer lies beneath the property and falls within a vulnerable drinking water management area. The concentration of PCE in the groundwater is currently unknown.

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Toxic to Humans

The chemical is a chlorinated solvent that is toxic to humans at very low concentrations. The MPCA says chronic exposure can cause dizziness, headaches, and liver and kidney damage. Exposure to high amounts of the compound has been linked to central nervous system damage, cancer, and death.

Its use in dry cleaning was banned in Minnesota in 2021.

Two other properties have also been added to the priority list. The MPCA says one is another former dry cleaner site in St. Paul, while the other is a property previously used by a circuit board manufacturer and metal plating operation in New Hope.

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