Between 1956 and 1972 the city used the north part of Edgewater Park as a public dump as well as a garbage burning dump. The rules that applied back then wouldn’t fly now.

In the 1960s, garbage burning was outlawed. In 1972, the city closed the dump, doing what was required to lawfully shut it down &045; which, at that time, was next to nothing.

Thirty years later problems are starting to arise.

&uot;The problem is that some of the stuff that was burned then is causing problems now,&uot; City Manager Paul Sparks said. &uot;This is not unusual, but it still is a problem we must address.&uot;

The city council Monday passed a resolution to allow the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to do a study on the land over the next two years.

Preliminary testing has shown that the ground and storm water, after settling through the buried garbage, is leaking out again, contaminated. Some of this water goes into the lake, and some goes elsewhere.

The test found poly-vinyl chloride and methane in the waters, both of which, according to Sparks are dangerous for inhalation.

Sparks said the the long-term MPCA study will probably end up with a remediation plan, which will likely ask for mostly city funds for cleanup. While there is no estimate of cleanup costs at this point, Sparks said the total price, in the worst case, could push $12 million.

&uot;It will most likely be expensive,&uot; he said.

The county also used the dump, so Sparks said asking the county for financial help is a possibility. There is also the possiblity that some of the garabage is from a company that existed at that time. The city can sue the insurers of those companies, similar to the way the city is suing former Wilson & Co. insurers for pollution on the former Farmland site.

While the long-term plan is not yet in place, Sparks said he is sure there will be some clean up necessary. This could mean that the park will be closed for a long time.

At this point, the park will be closed in mid-summer to begin the one- to two-year study.