The CMC Heartland Lite Yard site is located in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, at the northwest intersection of Hiawatha Avenue and 28th Street and is approximately 5 acres in size. This area is being remediated by the potentiall responsible parties (PRPs) with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture providing oversight. The South Minneapolis Arsenic Contamination Site, formerlly known as CMC Heartland, is the off-site residential cleanup being conducted by U.S. EPA Region 5 and is located at the Phillips neighborhood and surrounding areas west of Hiawatha Avenue. This portion of the Phillips neighborhood is primarily residential development, with limited sections along Bloomington Avenue, Longfellow Avenue, and 24th Street East containing commercial development.
Reade Manufacturing Company, an arsenical pesticide manufacturer, had leased and operated on the Site for
nearly twenty-five years, from early 1938 to 1963. US Borax subleased the parcel from 1963 to 1968,
operated and stored product at the Site during that time. From 1880 to 1985, the property was owned by
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul Railroad (aka Milwaukee Road). Milwaukee Road declared bankruptcy in 1985,
later the same year Milwaukee Road emerged from bankruptcy and changed its name to CMC Real Estate
Corporation. In 1990 CMC Real Estate Corporation dissolved itself into its parent, the Chicago Milwaukee
Corporation. On November 8, 1993, Chicago Milwaukee Corp. conveyed the Lite Yard Site to CMC Heartland
Partners. Contamination was discovered in 1994 during reconstruction of the Hiawatha Avenue corridor.
The current land owner of the CMC Heartland Lite Yard Site, CMC Heartland Partners, has performed
investigations of the on-site soils. Surface samples on site ranged from background levels (< 10 ppm) to
80,000 ppm. The Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry (ATSDR), in conjunction with the Minnesota
Department of Health (MDH), provided two Health Consultations dated April 8, 1999 and May 17, 2001.
These Health Consultations expressed concern about the possibility of highly contaminated dust being
windblown off the CMC Heartland Lite Yard Site thus impacting the Phillips Neighborhood residential yards
located just to the northwest of the CMC Heartland Lite Yard Site. The MDA and MDH collected soil samples
from the neighborhood in 2003. The results of this sampling event indicated elevated arsenic levels in soil
was present within the Phillips Neighborhood ranging from background to 605 ppm. The arsenic concentration
in which the ATSDR and MDH considers to be an acute exposure is 100 ppm. Since the discovery of arsenic
contamination within the Phillips Neighborhood, MDA has requested assistance from US EPA Region 5 in
addressing the off-site, residential arsenic contamination. The off-site residential properties is being referred to as the CMC Heartland Site, located within and/or bordering the Phillips Neighborhood.
US EPA Region 5 collected additional soil samples, for laboratory analysis in the Phillips Neighborhood, in
areas that were previously identified as areas of concern due to MDA’s sample results. This was done to
confirm MDA’s data as well as to further define the arsenic contamination. Soil samples identified almost 200 residential properties with arsenic concentrations above EPA's removal action level of 95 mg/Kg. As of May 2007, 95 residential properties have been remediated. There are 102 properties awaiting removal action.
Proposed removal actions include the removal of arsenic contaminated soils from the remaining 102 residential properties, proper disposal of contaminated material, the restoration of residential properties to pre-excavation conditions, and public outreach.
