Contractor to move contaminated soil from riverfront

Officials with Waste Management Inc. say they will remove thousands of tons of tainted dirt from a spot in the Minnesota River floodplain and put it into a nearby landfill.

The contaminated soil was excavated last year from the Twins ballpark construction site in downtown Minneapolis.

Officials with the ballpark builders say the soil was supposed to be placed in the landfill, because the landfill contains a liner to prevent the leeching of petrochemical contaminants into the groundwater.

Waste Management public affairs director Julie Ketchum says the company had the necessary permit from PCA to use the dirt to build a berm near the landfill.

"The pile of soil that exists right now is at least a half mile away from the river. So there's really no danger in the spring floods -- that time has past. There's no immediate concerns with the pile," she said.

Ketchum says the removal of the dirt will take more than a month. But she didn't comment on where the money for the operation should come from.

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