Arsenic cleanup at Perham fairgrounds expected to finish by June

The arsenic excavation at the East Otter Tail County Fairgrounds is nearing the end of a cleanup that has already reshaped fairground buildings and animal facilities in Perham. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says the project should wrap by June, bringing an active removal phase to a close at one of Otter Tail County’s most familiar community spaces.

That timeline matters because the fairgrounds are not a remote industrial parcel. They are home to the East Otter Tail County Fair, a place where families gather, exhibitors move livestock, and summer events fill the calendar. When contaminated soil is being dug out of a site like this, the work affects more than the ground below it. It changes how the fairgrounds function and what the county must plan for next.

The cleanup has unfolded in stages. Perham Focus reported in August 2024 that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency planned to demolish a structure on the affected area in mid-September so excavation could begin in spring 2025. That step signaled that the project would not be a quick fix. It required clearing the site first, then moving into the excavation itself, with state officials managing the property carefully as the work advanced.

The effort has also reached into fair operations. In July 2025, Perham Focus reported that the state of Minnesota would pay for both a temporary rabbit barn and a permanent one at the East Otter Tail County Fair as part of the arsenic removal effort. That meant the cleanup was not only about buried soil. It affected infrastructure that fairgoers and exhibitors see directly, and it tied the environmental work to the practical needs of a county fair that returns every year.

Arsenic contamination is especially important because it raises concerns about soil that people, animals and equipment may come into contact with on a busy public site. The excavation is meant to remove that material and allow the fairgrounds to move from active cleanup into longer-term management and follow-up. Once the work is complete in June, the county and the state will be left with a safer, more stable site and a clearer path for the next phase of fairground use in Perham.