Transcripts

SPEAKER: A longtime employee of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has filed a whistleblower lawsuit. He claims he faced retaliation for raising concerns about how the agency handles leaking petroleum tanks. Kristi Marohn has this report.

KRISTI MAROHN: Mark Toso spent nearly three decades as a hydrologist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He was known as an expert on investigating and cleaning up leaks from petroleum storage tanks often at old gas stations. Toso resigned in June. Five months later, he filed a lawsuit against the MPCA in Ramsey County District court.

MARK TOSO: I'm hoping this lawsuit brings changes to the agency because they're sorely needed.

KRISTI MAROHN: Toso alleges that the agency penalized him for voicing concerns that its petroleum remediation program was failing to protect groundwater and endangering the public. An MPCA spokesperson said she can't comment on an ongoing lawsuit, but she stated that the agency, quote, "Works swiftly and thoroughly to address environmental impacts of contamination from petroleum leaks." Petroleum storage tanks often buried underground, can corrode over time, and leak chemicals into the soil and groundwater.

That's the source of drinking water for about 3/4 of Minnesotans. Since the late 1980s, there have been more than 20,000 petroleum leak sites reported across the state. Toso says most have been deemed no longer a risk to the environment or public health and closed by the MPCA, meaning there's no further cleanup or monitoring.

MARK TOSO: The problem is that they told everybody that they were cleaning up these sites and closing them, but in reality, they weren't.

KRISTI MAROHN: Tuso says, about 5,000 closed sites involve leaded gasoline banned in the US more than two decades ago. It contains toxic additives known as lead scavengers. They're designed to prevent lead deposits in engines and don't break down easily.

MARK TOSO: So when I say they close a site and says, well, the contamination will take care of itself for leaded gasoline sites, it just doesn't work.

KRISTI MAROHN: Toso claims that around the year 2000, the MPCA shifted away from cleaning up contamination at petroleum leak sites. Instead, he says, the agency focused on eliminating pathways between the source of contamination and drinking water supplies, often by replacing affected wells, but leaving the contaminants to biodegrade. Beginning around 2013, Toso says, he repeatedly raised concerns to his supervisors about closing sites where he believed contamination still posed a risk because it might move over time.

MARK TOSO: The risk isn't necessarily the well. The risk is the groundwater. If somebody drills a new well or it moves further, obviously that's a risk for the future.

KRISTI MAROHN: Public water suppliers routinely test for a range of contaminants, including those found in petroleum. But Toso says, private well owners likely don't have their water tested regularly for the chemicals. In response to his complaints, Toso's Attorney Anja Severtson says he received poor performance reviews and reprimands. In 2015, a supervisor gave him a letter of expectations, which said his workplace behavior was combative, accusatory, and disruptive. His request to travel to a national conference on storage tanks was denied.

ANJA SEVERTSON: Prior to raising these issues, he had an unblemished history with the agency, and that all changed when he decided to do the right thing.

KRISTI MAROHN: Last May, Toso emailed a supervisor announcing his intent to resign writing, quote, "The MPCA'S ongoing retaliation against me for raising concerns about the health and safety of the public has become intolerable. In its response to the lawsuit, the MPCA denies the bulk of Toso's allegations, including that it closed any leak sites without adequately addressing the contamination. The agency also denies any retaliation against Toso. Jim Pennino was also a hydrologist at the MPCA for 30 years, mostly working on petroleum leak sites before he retired in 2018. Pennino says Toso was a competent hydrologist who worked hard and was known for his expertise.

JIM ENNINO: I think he was frustrated because he saw some problems with the program, and instead of listening to his comments and trying to maybe solve some of those problems, they just kind of labeled him as a troublemaker.

KRISTI MAROHN: Pennino says there are legitimate reasons why some petroleum leak sites are too costly or complicated to be cleaned up easily. Some require closing roads and moving power lines, utilities, or even buildings. But he says, MPCA leaders pressured staff to close sites even some he felt should be excavated to prevent more contamination.

JIM ENNINO: We call it a cleanup program. I sort of felt that was we really shouldn't-- we should have called it a site investigation program. We check out the site, and then we find some reason to close it.

KRISTI MAROHN: One leak site mentioned in Toso's lawsuit is in the Central Minnesota city of Paynesville where a petroleum spill at a former service station was discovered in the 1980s. Chemicals from the petroleum leached into the groundwater and forced the city to close two of its wells. The MPCA replaced the wells, but city officials and some MPCA hydrologists, including Toso urged the agency to excavate the site and remove the contamination, which the agency resisted.

Still concerned that the leak threatened their water supply, Paynesville officials turned to state lawmakers for help. In 2015, the legislature appropriated up to $2.5 million for a treatment system to remove chemicals from the city's water. Paynesville Mayor Shawn Reinke says Toso's lawsuit echoes the city's experiences with the MPCA.

SHAWN REINKE: We had raised concerns about appropriate remediation and whether the site should just be excavated, and it seemed like those concerns were brushed aside or were dismissed relatively easily.

KRISTI MAROHN: Reinke says the city's water is carefully monitored, and he's confident that it's safe. Still after reading Toso's lawsuit he says Paynesville officials plan to have their water supply independently tested as an added precaution. KirstI Marohn, MPR News, Brainerd.