General Mills, Street address unknown, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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EPA
Region		 Location of facility Type of facility Amount
of ore
received
(in tons)		 Did
EPA
visit
the
site?		 Were
samples
taken?		 Results of
evaluation
5 Street address unknown, Minneapolis, Minnesota Unknown 2 No No According to an EPA database compiled from W.R. Grace shipping invoices, 2 tons of vermiculite ore from the Libby mine were shipped to this site in June 1970. EPA could not find this site and, on April 13, 2000, EPA contacted a representative of General Mills by phone about the site. According to an historical search conducted by General Mills, the company had only used vermiculite to soundproof a room in a facility located in Minneapolis. The source of the vermiculite was unknown; however, the company representative believed a local source provided the vermiculite because of the small amount involved. The company representative believed that the materials could still be in the walls of the building. EPA determined that, under these circumstances, it would be unlikely that workers would be exposed to contaminated vermiculite for sufficient duration to cause health effects. EPA’s files for this site did not contain the address of the facility where the vermiculite was used for soundproofing. The company representative also said that at one time, before the early 1960s, General Mills did have a chemical division that may have used vermiculite but this could not be confirmed because documents were not available. That division was sold to Hinkle Chemical in the early 1960s. On the basis of this information, EPA decided no further action was needed.

GAO-09-6R