Posting this here because we don’t have a Vermillion River forum. That and this story will be seen by more IDO’ers here! Not to mention the Big V dumps into the Big Muddy just upstream from Everts!
Guys like Ken Larsen deserve a big 
Shows that a regular guy who cares can make a difference.
From Todays Pioneer Press.
Link to Story at Pioneer Press website
Hastings angler’s big catch: a river polluter
Hastings resident spots carpet cleaner dumping wastewater
By Nick Ferraro
[email protected]
Updated: 04/08/2010 11:44:15 PM CDT
Ken Larson was bewildered by the white foam he spotted twice in two years in the Vermillion River in Hastings.
“It must’ve been 18 inches thick, and all I knew was that it wasn’t natural,” said Larson, 65, an avid fisherman who walks by the river every day.
The Hastings resident reported the mystery to city officials and the Dakota County Water Resources Department. Also stumped, they told him to keep monitoring it.
He did, and said he later saw an employee of a West St. Paul carpet-cleaning business dumping wastewater into a storm-sewer manhole in a Hastings neighborhood.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency served the company, Dynasty Cleaning Services, with a violation notice, and last month Dynasty completed the required corrective actions.
The company agreed it no longer will discharge wastewater and submitted a plan for how it will ensure that. Dynasty, which did not return a message this week seeking comment, did not have to pay a fine.
The white foam first bubbled up in the river in fall 2008 and then again the following spring, Larson said. Both times, he saw the substance floating downstream from a location where storm water empties into the river.
In September, Larson happened upon a Dynasty employee dumping carpet-cleaning wastewater from a hose inside a company van into the manhole. He began snapping photos.
The employee denied dumping the wastewater before closing the hose valve and leaving, Larson said.
“I think he probably was having a bad day, especially when he bumped into a fisherman with a camera,” he said.
Larson immediately reported the incident to the city, which sent over a worker who captured a water sample. Tests showed high levels of phosphorus, nitrogen and surfactants, which are found in soaps, said Travis Thiel, a watershed specialist with the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization.
The MPCA became involved and handled the case through its water quality compliance and enforcement unit.
“We had pictures of the violation, and you just don’t get those,” Thiel said.
In February, the MPCA sent Dynasty Cleaning Services a notice of violation that spelled out the allegations and corrective actions. The agency noted the catch-and-release trout fishing that occurs downstream from the discharge point.
“I don’t know enough about fish physiology, but I can’t imagine this would be any good for fish,” Thiel said.
Chelsea Domeier, an industrial wastewater inspector at the MPCA, said the case was closed last month after Dynasty completed its three corrective actions.
Domeier said the company owner informed the agency the employee failed to follow the company’s policy and has been fired.
Thiel said there have been no similar reports of illegal dumping in the river since the alleged violation and stressed there is no evidence the company was responsible for more than the two other incidents.
“No news is good news,” he said.
He credited Larson for his efforts.
“For him to keep an eye on a resource like he has is astounding,” he said.
Larson said it’s a “good example of how government should work.”
“Three agencies worked together on this and did the right thing,” he said.
Nick Ferraro can be reached at 651-228-2173.
-J.
Seems to make since to most reasonably intelligent human beings. 
