Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) announced today that his amendment aimed at cleaning up a polluted former missile site in Watertown, MN was included in final passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which passed the Senate today. President Trump is expected to sign the bipartisan agreement into law.

Watertown was the location of a Cold War anti-aircraft missile site until 1972. In 1974, it was jointly purchased from the military by 11 Minnesota communities – Mound, Chanhassen, Chaska, Eden Prairie, Excelsior, Long Lake, Maple Plain, Mayer, St. Bonifacius, Victoria and Watertown. The 11 communities established the Western Area Fire Training Academy (WAFTA), an agreement between their local volunteer fire departments. Under the agreement, the grounds were used to conduct fire training exercises for the group for over a decade, until it was discovered that the site was contaminated with harmful pollutants left over from the Nike missile program. Since the 1990’s, WAFTA has attempted to return the site to the military with the hope that it will be cleaned of pollutants.

Phillips’s provision in the final NDAA agreement will finally require the U.S. Army to identify the number of similar sites nationwide and make recommendations on how best to clean them up.

“When it comes to defense, it’s my job to ensure that Washington is fulfilling its promise to uphold the safety and security of Minnesotans.” said Phillips. “That is exactly what we accomplished with our deal today and I’m proud that after more than two decades of hard work, a solution is in sight for eleven of our communities. My door is always open to local leaders who wish to be partners in my mission to generate results for Minnesota.”

During a tour of all 36 cities in Minnesota’s Third District, Phillips and his staff were made aware of the problem by the Mound fire chief Gregory Pederson, who also serves as the President of WAFTA. Pederson had requested action from Third District representatives for nearly two decades with no success.

“In my decades of service I’ve overseen multi-million dollar improvements to our station, brought new fire trucks to our community, responded to 13,000 emergencies - and nothing has taken longer to achieve than this project,” said Chief Pederson. “Our WAFTA group has been actively pursuing funding or any viable solution for over 18 years that will assist us in resolving environmental issues with this site. Dean Phillips is the real deal. He reminds me of a firefighter – he sees a problem and finds a way to get it done. Our entire WAFTA group is excited about the great effort and teamwork shown by Dean and his staff.  A big thank you for all the help on this important issue.”

The NDAA has strong bipartisan support including approval from the Trump administration.

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