By: News Director Larissa Donovan
CASS LAKE– The Environmental Protection Agency held a public meeting yesterday at Cass Lake’s elementary school.
The meeting was well attended with political figures, staffers from Senators Tina Smith’s and Amy Klobuchar’s offices, as well as from Congressman Pete Stauber’s office.
The EPA is proposing to dig up contaminated soil from residential yards where the St. Regis Paper Company treated wood products, place the slightly contaminated soil on International Paper or BNSF property in Cass Lake, and replace the contaminated soil with clean fill.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency approves this plan, but the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe supports removing all contaminated soil, as did many attendants of the meeting.
Public comments on the proposal will be accepted until Aug. 15, and may be submitted online through the EPA’s webpage on the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund site.
