The environmental action group Nukewatch is accusing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency of misleading the public about Department of Defense barrel dumpsites in Lake Superior. Rich Kremer reports.

Nukewatch Co-Chair John LaForge says the MPCA’s statements about the barrels dumped in Lake Superior during the Cold War years are inconsistent at best and wrong at worst.

“We’d like them to clean up those internal contradictions on their website, where on one hand they say nothing hazardous was ever found in the barrels and on the very same website it lists the 17 toxic heavy metals and other chemicals that were found in the seven barrels that were recovered in 1994.”

That list includes known carcinogens like arsenic, benzene, barium and cadmium. Speaking to the Duluth American Indian Commission Monday night, LaForge says state and federal agencies are also covering up possible radioactive elements in the barrels. LaForge says he found documentation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that shows the company producing the waste was licensed to handle radioactive materials.

“They used uranium 238 for armor piercing projectiles and it’s our understanding that Honeywell, which is the source of these 1,500 barrels, was machining this uranium 238 to develop these depleted uranium shells back in the 50’s and 60’s before they were used in war. Our suspicion is that the radioactive emissions that were found by the EPA in 1990 are perhaps from some of these uranium parts that were being machined by Honeywell.”

MPCA and Honeywell officials have long denied that the barrels, dumped near French River near Duluth’s water intake, contain anything significant amounts of chemicals. They say amounts detected were too small to pose a public health threat.

Even so, American Indian Commission Co-Chair Rick DeFoe wanted to hear the allegations.

“I was grateful that he came here tonight to share the information that he did and I hope it can be dispensed in a way that will inspire and energize and awaken those folks that are wondering, that they wonder a little bit deeper and a little harder and that they care for this water that we have here.”

LaForge wants federal money to pay for water and sediment testing at the barrel sites. Meanwhile, the Red Cliff Band of Chippewa is working with the Department of Defense to remove 70 of those barrels for testing over the next two years.

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