Wei-Ho, Sing2019-06-192019-06-192005https://hdl.handle.net/11299/203763The Phillips neighborhood of south Minneapolis has dealt with numerous environmental pollutants in the last few decades. Arsenic is the latest contaminant to be added to this burden. This paper examines the issue of arsenic contamination in soil and groundwater in Phillips and surrounding communities by explaining the context of location, identifying potential health effects, summarizing the history of this contamination, and identifying options for community involvement. Due to the proximity of arsenic-contaminated soils at a former pesticide manufacturing plant to residential areas of east Phillips, government agencies sampled soils in approximately 500 residential yards to determine the spread and scope of the contamination. From these surveys, many residential yards were found to contain moderate (chronic, 30-95 mg/kg) levels of arsenic while a smaller percentage was found to contain very high (acute, >95 mg/kg) levels of arsenic. The approximately 30 residential yards found to be highly contaminated were immediately excavated. These findings also prompted the federal government to expand the investigation to include other neighboring communities and perform more soil samplings. Citizens in the area are encouraged to take precautions to minimize arsenic exposure and get involved with community leaders to help raise awareness and ensure quality of remediation.enNeighborhood Planning for Community Revitalization (NPCR)Pollution ControlReport