Ramsey County says ex-ammo plant cleanup complete, ready for development

Ramsey County officials say the environmental cleanup is complete at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant site in Arden Hills, Minn. Officials say the cleanup brings the 427-acre Superfund site up to residential standards.

The county purchased the land north of St. Paul in 2013 for almost $29 million. Now, it's seeking developers to build housing for about 4,000 people as well as a large retail area.

Deputy county manager Heather Worthington expects the first contracts with developers sometime in 2016.

"This is a huge milestone," she said. "Just to put it in context, this is the largest Superfund site in the state of Minnesota and for a long time, I think, was viewed by the community as being something that was too complex to clean up. What we've done as of Tuesday is prove that it could be cleaned up and cleaned up to residential standards so that it can become a productive piece of property again."

The county says it is working with the state and federal pollution control agencies to certify the cleanup and remove the site from the Superfund list.