1. Leech Lake Air Toxics Project
Brandy Toft
Air Quality Specialist
National Tribal Forum on Air Quality 2011

2. Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
Leech Lake Reservation rural area located in North Central Minnesota
864,158 acres, over half is water/wetlands
260 miles of rivers/streams
270 fishable lakes, 40 wildrice lakes
Serving 12,000 in 17 communities
Part of the 1854 Ceded Territory

3. Leech Lake Reservation3
Wood products
Wood Products
Great Lakes Comp Station 2
Paper mill
Waste incinerator
Coal EGU 2
Largest MN Coal EGU
Waste EGU

4. Why Air Toxics? No data collected in our area
State partnership for toxics monitoring
Background 45 miles away
Minor source concern
Educate the community including the governments

5. School Enrollment State school 89%
Headstart %

6. Minor Source?

7. Superfund

8. Who’s Affected? Middle of a small city, Tribal government HQ
Tribal members – infants to elders
School children
4-18 years of age
8hours per day
5 days per week
Non-native neighbors

9. Toxics Sampling Similar equipment to correlate with MPCA
Carbonyls, TSP, VOCs
Set up EPA School Toxics site in July
Sample during summer months
less ground cover, worst case scenario?

10. Brandy Toft Air Quality Specialist Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe