SOUTH CO RD 8
The Perham Arsenic site consists of a six- to eight-foot deep pit and associated groundwater plume that emanated from the pit area, which is located in the southwest corner of the Otter Tail County Fairgrounds in Perham, Minnesota. From the 1930s until 1947, the site was used to mix United States Department of Agriculture supplied arsenic with sawdust and molasses, which was used as a pesticide to control an outbreak of grasshoppers that had threatened crops throughout the Midwest. In 1947, approximately 200 to 2,500 lbs. of arsenic pesticide was buried in a shallow pit. In 1971, Hammers Construction Company purchased the property, adjacent to the southwest corner of the fairgrounds, to build offices and a warehouse. In 1972, the company installed a groundwater well to provide water to the facility. Eleven employees were poisoned by arsenic-contaminated groundwater. The well was capped, and the city of Perham extended its municipal water supply to the facility. Approximately 2,000 people live in the city of Perham and drink groundwater from the sand and gravel aquifer below. Site Responsibility This site is being addressed through federal and state actions.
2,229 |
People living within a 1 mile radius |
$57,378 |
Average Income |
1,008 |
Occupied homes |
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