St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman addresses a union rally in Hastings

It’s election day — although you’d be hard-pressed to find much evidence of that fact. Even Joe Soucheray could be forgiven for failing to remember to vote. Minneapolis has no primary because it’s utilizing instant-runoff voting for the first time. The Minneapolis DFL is holding three events tonight to educate people on the new voting process and will conduct a gubernatorial straw poll.

In St. Paul there’s a primary election, but not much at stake. Mayor Chris Coleman faces three challengers, but only one with any credibility: Republican-backed Eva Ng.

There are also four slots on the school board up for grabs. Incumbents John Brodrick, Tom Goldstein and Elona Street-Stewart are all seeking re-election, and they’re joined by four other challengers. In addition, four candidates — Vallay Moua Varro, Quyen Nguyen, Pat Igo and Lucky Rosenbloom — are seeking to fill out the final two years left on departing board member Tom Conlon’s term.

The Ramsey County suburbs offer a little more drama. White Bear Lake initially had four candidates file for the mayoral contest, but two subsequently dropped out, eliminating the need for a primary. The Ward Four city council contest features three challengers, meaning one will be eliminated after today’s vote.

The most engaging contests are undoubtedly in Maplewood, which is notorious for its fractious politics. The mayoral race features seven challengers, including incumbent Diana Longrie. Also likely to draw some votes: former mayor Bob Cardinal, current council member Will Rossbach and former council member Marvin Koppen. That field will be winnowed down to two today.

There are eleven challengers for two city council posts. Incumbent Kathleen Jeunemann is seeking another term, while former council member Rebecca Cave is looking to return to her post. Four candidates will advance to the general election.

In Hennepin County, only Bloomington and part of St. Louis Park have primary contests. In the latter municipality, three candidates — Thomas Peterson, Julia Ross and Bill Theobald — will vie for two spots on the general election ballot in the Ward Four city council contest. Current council member C. Paul Carver is not seeking re-election.

In Bloomington there are four challengers for an at-large spot on the city council: Ryan Gopaul, John “Stretch” Kjenstad, Karen Nordstrom and Tom Tomlinson. Nordstrom is the incumbent.

Like Al Franken, Joel and Ethan Coen grew up in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. People say, wow, something in the water? Actually, yeah: coal pollution.

Coal could be personal for the Coens (who, like Franken, decamped to New York City but sometimes come back home for work). You might even say it’s in their blood. Coal trains rumble through St. Louis Park, and there’s a Superfund site where Reilly Tar & Chemical Corp. stood until 1972, offgassing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – an acrid odor probably familiar to all three lads — and putting toxic pollutants into the groundwater. 

“Clean coal” energy generation still produces harmful byproducts like carbon dioxide; likewise there are harmful byproducts created in the production of coal tar — a useful substance (it’s in dandruff shampoo) that’s itself a byproduct of converting coal to coke.

Franken has expressed general support for “clean coal,” but he questions the Mesaba Energy Project that his Senate-race rival Norm Coleman backs for Northern Minnesota. Last week, Franken told the Bemidji Pioneer (hat top Minnesota Brown):

The idea of coal gasification where you can sequester the CO2 is a technology that we ought to develop.

Only problem: That technology may not be ready until 2030, according to a report today in the Guardian (hat tip: arts & ecology).

TAGA, short for Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer, will be used to help federal authorities test basements for chemical vapors. About 300 property owners were alerted last month after regulators detected volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, in groundwater samples. The chemicals do not affect the local drinking water supply, but authorities are concerned about the potential for vapors to seep into structures, where they could be harmful if inhaled.More than two-thirds of the property owners have signed forms allowing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) access to their basements.

The EPA says it plans to report testing results every seven to 10 days during the project. Homeowners will receive individual screening results, but specific addresses will not be included in public reports.

Investigators are also working to identify possible sources of the contamination. VOCs are commonly found in industrial degreasers, metal cleaners and dry-cleaning fluids.

The EPA has three TAGA buses. In addition to work following Hurricane Katrina and at the World Trade Center site, a TAGA bus was also used at the Hart Senate Building anthrax cleanup.

At a press conference Tuesday, officials stressed there is no evidence of human exposure to the chemicals, which include perchlorethylene and trichloroethylene. But they’re concerned the vapors could seep into basements. They sent a letter to about 270 residents of the southwestern suburb Monday asking to conduct tests in their homes.

“At this point we have no reason to suspect there are vapors present in structures,” said Jim Kelly, a health risk assessor with the Minnesota Department of Public Health.

The area is centered on the intersection of Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue, about two miles due west of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. In addition to the homes, the study’s territory also includes a community center, a high school and a Spanish-immersion school. Chemical testing at the schools began over the weekend.

The chemicals are known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and they’re used for dry-cleaning fabrics and degreasing metal parts. They’re also found in many common household products like paint, carpet and cleaning solutions. When inhaled over long periods of time, even low concentrations can impact health.The contamination was first detected in a city of Edina drinking water well in 1995. The city shut down the well in October 2003 after contamination exceeded federal standards. A search for the source by city and state investigators eventually led them to more ground water contamination in St. Louis Park.

The St. Louis Park contamination is too shallow to affect its drinking water aquifers, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Brad Moore said Tuesday. Authorities are concerned, however, about the potential for vapors from the chemicals to find their way into basements.

State consultants last winter studied soil gas samples taken eight feet below the surface from 22 locations around the city. All tested positive for the volatile chemical vapors, which led officials to contact the EPA. Another round of outdoor testing this summer better defined the affected area, and now officials want to test for indoor contamination.

“We want to make sure the vapors are not seeping into homes,” Moore said.

Authorities are not recommending that homeowners take any special precautions in light of the vapors. They are asking for cooperation as they continue studying the scope and source. An federal environmental response team out of Cincinnati plans to start testing homes the middle of next month but before that they need permission from property owners.

A pair of meetings is scheduled at the St. Louis Park Recreation Center, 3700 Monterey Dr., to explain the process for residents. The first is at 7 p.m. Dec. 13 and the second at 2 p.m. Dec. 15.

The number of homes included in the study area is on scale with a couple recent major environmental remediations in Minneapolis. More than 200 homeowners’ yards were contaminated with arsenic from the CMC Heartland site in south Minneapolis, and 260 properties in northeast Minneapolis were contaminated by asbestos from the Western Mineral Products/W.R. Grace plant.

Investigators have not yet been able to pinpoint the source of the chemicals, EPA spokesman Mick Hans said. They think there could be more than one source because several machine shops historically operated in a nearby industrial rail corridor and still do so today.

At high concentrations the chemicals would have an odor, but at the levels they’ve been observed they would be undetectable by scent, Kelly said. The vapors aren’t harmful outdoors, where they are rapidly diluted.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Department of Health and the city of St. Louis Park are assisting the EPA with the investigation.