Perfluorochemicals: How Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions Helped Create a Megaplume

Yingling, Virginia

Perfluorochemicals: How Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions Helped Create a Megaplume

Wednesday, May 7, 2014: 11:35 a.m.

Platte River Room (Westin Denver Downtown)

Virginia Yingling , Environmental Health Division, Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, MN

Ingrid Verhagen , IS Transformation Project, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Paul, MN

Fred Campbell , Superfund, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Paul, MN

Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are a class of persistent and highly mobile compounds used in a wide range of industrial and consumer products. They have been detected globally in environmental media, humans, and wildlife and research suggests possible human health effects may result from exposures at environmental levels. Migration of PFCs from three legacy disposal sites in Washington County, Minnesota have contaminated over 100 square miles of groundwater; an area much greater than predicted by early modeling based on regional groundwater flow regimes. Investigations revealed that a “perfect storm” of complex groundwater-surface water interactions, regional- and local-scale bedrock features, and the extreme environmental persistence of PFCs combined to create a co-mingled “megaplume” that contaminated over 1,500 private wells and 8 community water supplies. This talk will focus on the role of groundwater-surface water interactions and bedrock features in the creation of this “megaplume”, but will also touch on the fate and transport of PFCs, their possible health concerns, and clean-up options.

Virginia Yingling, Environmental Health Division, Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, MN

Virginia Yingling is a hydrogeologist at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), where she has investigated contaminated drinking water sites since 2000. Prior to that, she worked as a hydrogeologist for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, as an environmental consultant at Twin City Testing, Inc. and as a field assistant for the USGS. She holds a B.S. from Penn State and an M.S. from the University of Wyoming, both in geology. Yingling has 21 years of experience in environmental investigations and is the MDH's lead investigator on perfluorochemicals and several other chemicals of emerging concern.

Ingrid Verhagen, IS Transformation Project, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Paul, MN

Ingrid Verhagen has been working as a project hydrogeologist in the Closed Landfill Program at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) since its inception in 1994. She received a B.S. from Grand Valley State University and an M.S. from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, both in geology. Verhagen has currently been assigned to an agency-wide project to provide more online services and more data transparency across all business functions at the MPCA.

Fred Campbell, Superfund, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Paul, MN

Fred Campbell has a B.A. in Geology from Macalester College (1974) and an M.S. in Geology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth (1982). He has worked as a hydrologist in the Superfund and Site Assessment programs at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency since 1988. Prior to that, Campbell worked as a field geologist in mineral exploration; as a student worker at the Minnesota Department. of Transportation's Environmental Services Division; and as an assistant field geologist at the Minnesota Geological Survey.