As a result of this the Agency started receiving requests for assistance with determining whether a property had been the site of a release or threatened release of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants. To respond to the growing number of requests for this information the Master Entity System was created in the 1980's.
The data contained in this database is not of survey quality and therefore is not sufficient in and of itself to meet the requirements of determining environmental risks associated with a property, but it does provide the user with the name and locations of known and potential soil and groundwater contamination sites in a given area. It can serve as a good starting point when completing an environmental search/history of a given area.
Confidence in the accuracy of the Unpermitted Dump data is especially low. This data was obtained by word of mouth in the late 1980's and many of those sites have not been field verified. As well, site visits were completed for some, but due to vegetation growth or development in that area it was hard to verify the exact location (or existence) of some dump sites. Complete addresses were not always provided for sites making it difficult to accurately locate on a map. An example of a location for a site would include: located on the west side of County Road 21. The PLS information would be provided, but not the exact distance from the county road or the quarter section.
Sites should be accurate to within 640 acres.
As stated earlier, no record was kept of which method was used to enter the various types of sites in this database.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Permitted Solid Waste Permitted Solid Waste (SW) sites include facilities that manage solid waste (household or business garbage). Among the types of facilities included are landfills, transfer stations, demolition landfills, composting facilities and solid-waste incinerators.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unpermitted Dumps The list of Unpermitted Dump Sites was created in the 1980's and was originally called the Open Dump Inventory (ODI). Sites maintained in this list were later referred to as Outstate Dump Inventory (ODI) and Metro Dump Inventory (MDI) sites. Because these sites are no longer open the name has been changed to Unpermitted Dump Sites and contains dump sites for the entire state. Included in the list are abandoned dumps, demolition sites, tree disposal sites, industrial dumps and other dumps. Most of these sites existed prior to the creation of the MPCA in 1967, and detailed information about them is not generally available. When these sites are investigated and found to present a risk to human health or the environment, they are moved into the appropriate cleanup program.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NFRAP NFRAP, or "No Further Remedial Action Planned" sites, are the sites that have been removed from the CERCLIS list by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These sites are no longer considered a federal concern, and most are also a low priority for the state.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Superfund State Superfund sites, also referred to as Permanent List of Priorities (PLP) sites, are those the state intends to investigate and cleanup under the Minnesota Superfund Program. Known or suspected environmental contamination threatens public health, welfare or the environment at PLP sites.These sites include those addressed by the MPCA, as well as sites with agricultural chemical contamination which are addressed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CERCLIS Suspected hazardous waste sites throughout the United States are listed in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Information System, or CERCLIS. This federal database, contains information on preliminary assessments, potential and actual hazardous waste sites, site inspections, and cleanup activities.
CERCLIS sites are candidates for addition to the federal and state Superfund lists. The database is updated periodically as new sites are discovered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal Superfund Federal Superfund sites, also referred to as National Priority List (NPL) sites, are those considered high priority for cleanup under the federal Superfund program. These are sites where known or suspected environmental contamination threatens public health or the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updates the NPL once a year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Closed Landfills State Closed Landfill Program (CLP) sites are closed muncipal waste landfills that were formerly permitted by the state. After a binding agreement is negotiated between the MPCA and the site owner/operator, the state takes responsibility for monitoring and cleanup systems providing long-term care.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voluntary Investigation & Cleanup The Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup (VIC) Program allows buyers, sellers, developers or local governments to voluntarily investigate and, if necessary, clean up contaminated land to facilitate its sale, financing or redevelopment. Voluntary parties that complete investigation and/or cleanup activities under MPCA oversight can receive liability assurances that protect them from future Superfund liability.
Location Information:
Name of site: This could be a company name, or an owners name. It is the identifier for the site as the MPCA knows it.
Address: Whenever possible the address is the actual address for the site. If the address is unknown a physical location may be provided instead such as the intersection it is located at, or the PLS information for the property.
City: The city refers to the actual city the site is located in. If the site is not in a city the nearest city was used, or the city used by the US Postal Office. Occassionally a township is used.
Zipcode: This is the zipcode area the actual site is located in. It is verified with the Geographic Data Technologies (GDT) streets data for Minnesota.
County: This is the county that the actual site is located in. It may appear with a county code versus the name. The codes and correlating county name follow: 1 - Aitkin, 2 - Anoka, 3 - Becker, 4 - Beltrami, 5 - Benton, 6 - Big Stone, 7 - Blue Earth, 8 - Brown, 9 - Carlton, 10 - Carver, 11 - Cass, 12 - Chippewa, 13 - Chisago, 14 - Clay, 15 - Clearwater, 16 - Cook, 17 - Cottonwood, 18 - Crow Wing, 19 - Dakota, 20 - Dodge, 21 - Douglas, 22 - Faribault, 23 - Fillmore, 24 - Freeborn, 25 - Goodhue, 26 - Grant, 27 - Hennepin, 28 - Houston, 29 - Hubbard, 30 - Isanti, 31 - Itasca, 32, Jackson, 33 - Kanabec, 34 - Kandiyohi, 35 - Kittson, 36 - Koochiching, 37 - Lac Qui Parle, 38 - Lake, 39 - Lake of the Woods, 40 - Le Sueur, 41 - Lincoln, 42 - Lyon, 43 - McLeod, 44 - Mahnomen, 45 - Marshall, 46 - Martin, 47 - Meeker, 48 - Mille Lacs, 49 - Morrison, 50 - Mower, 51 - Murray, 52 - Nicollet, 53 - Nobles, 54 - Norman, 55 - Olmsted, 56 - Ottertail, 57 - Pennington, 58 - Pine, 59 - Pipestone, 60 - Polk, 61 - Pope, 62 - Ramsey, 63 - Red Lake, 64 - Redwood, 65 - Renville, 66 - Rice, 67 - Rock, 68 - Roseau, 69 - St. Louis, 70 - Scott, 71 - Sherburne, 72 - Sibley, 73 - Stearns, 74 - Steele, 75 - Stevens, 76 - Swift, 77 - Todd, 78 - Traverse, 79 - Wabasha, 80 - Wadena, 81 - Waseca, 82 - Washington, 83 - Watonwan, 84 - Wilkin, 85 - Winona, 86 - Wright, 87 - Yellow Medicine.
Link ID: This is a number that is computer generated when the site is added to the Master Entity System database.
For more information about Permitted Solid Waste Sites, call the MPCA at 218-846-0470.
For more information about Unpermitted Dumps, contact the MPCA at 651-297-5177, or toll-free at 1- 800-657-3864.
For more information about No Further Remedial Action Planned sites, contact the MPCA at 651-296-6139, or toll-free at 800-657-3864.
For more information about State Superfund sites, visit the MPCA Superfund Program page at <http://www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/superf_p.html>. Or, contact the MPCA at 651-296-6139, or toll-free at 800-657-3864.
For more information about Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Information System Sites, contact the MPCA at 651-296-6139, or toll-free at 800-657-3864.
For more information about Federal Superfund sites, visit the MPCA Superfund Program page at <http://www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/superf_p.html>. Or contact the MPCA at 651-296-6139, or toll-free at 800-657-3864.
For more information on State Closed landfill Program sites, visit the CLP page at <http://www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/landfill_p.html>. Or contact the following MPCA staff:
Metro Locations: Ron Schwartz 651-297-2915 or Jean Hanson 651-296-7390 South Locations: Don Abrams 651-296-9543 or John Moeger 651-282-2383 North Locations: Larry Olson 218-846-0466 or Travis Peterson 218-828-6069
For more information about Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup Sites, visit the VIC Program page at <http://www.pca.state.mn.us/cleanup/vic.html>. Or, contact the MPCA VIC Program at 651-296-7212.
A search of this database should not be considered sufficient to complete a Phase I investigation of the history or background of a site, or to meet requirements for environmental due diligence with regard to a site.
The State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and employees assume no responsibility or liability to any person or entity for the use of this information. Any use of this information is made at the risk of the user.
What you will get is an ArcView shapefile which represents all listings of known and potential soil and ground water contamination sites in the State of Minnesota. These files were created for those wishing to incorporate the data into their own database inventories and/or to create maps of the MES sites.
To use these files to create maps or to perform geographic functions you will need Geographic Information System (GIS) computer software. You will also need all of the files included in the zipped file which are: Sites.dbf - Size = 1.09 MB. This file contains the attribute data for the sites. (site name, address, city, zipcode, county, legislative district, congressional district and an indication of what type of site it is such as Unpermitted Dump Site. Sites.shp - Size = 119KB. This file displays the physical location for each site. A site symbol marker represents the center of each site. The following files all support the shapefile and are essential for viewing these sites in GIS: Sites.shx - Size = 34 KB, Sites.sbx - Size 4 KB and Sites.sbn - Size = 545.5 KB The final folder in the zipped file is the metadata which will provide valuable information about the data, the source, projection, accuracy and contact person for example.
If you would just like the list of MES sites to be used in a spreadsheet (or tabular) format you would only need sites.dbf.