Radon Mitigation in Pine Island, MN
Radon testing and mitigation in Pine Island.
Pine Island has been adding new housing for years and has plenty more on the way. The town recently annexed land for a development with around 200 single-family lots, plus medium and high density housing on top of that. The radon question for these homes looks different than it does in the older parts of town.
A town still under construction
A new home built in Pine Island after June of 2009 has a passive radon control system roughed in under the slab as part of the Minnesota Residential Code. A vent pipe runs from below the slab through the roof, and an electrical box sits in the attic, ready for a future fan. Most of the newer Pine Island housing stock has this exact setup.
Whether the system is actually keeping radon levels down is a separate question. Minnesota Department of Health data shows that roughly one in four new homes with a passive system still test above the EPA action level. The passive setup relies on the natural stack effect of the home, and that works some of the time and doesn't the rest.
For homeowners in the older parts of Pine Island, the picture is different. The houses are older, the foundations are older, and the passive system isn't there to begin with. Both halves of town are in the same Zone 1 radon county, and the question is the same regardless of when the home went up.
Pine Island at a glance
Radon work for a town in the middle of a multi-year residential expansion, where new subdivisions are still being platted on land that was farmland a few years ago.
- Housing
- A historic central core plus active new-construction subdivisions on the north and west sides of town, with hundreds of additional lots planned over the next decade.
- Geology
- Same regional limestone profile as Olmsted County, with the EPA classifying Goodhue County in its highest-risk radon zone as well.
- Median radon (Pine Island)
- 3.7 pCi/L , below the EPA action level 22 tests/yr avg, MDH 2014–2023
- Goodhue County ≥ 4 pCi/L
- 49.6% of tested homes Ranks #41 of 87 MN counties
- Distance from Rochester
- 15 miles north
- County
- Goodhue
- EPA radon zone
- Zone 1
What the radon numbers actually say in Pine Island
Across the testing the Minnesota Department of Health, Radon Testing public dataset has on file for Pine Island (2014–2023), the median home reads 3.7 pCi/L. That is below the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L. The geometric mean comes in at 3.5 pCi/L. That is a log-scale average that tends to track better when the distribution has a long upper tail, which radon distributions always do.
Zoom out to Goodhue County. 49.6% of tested homes in the county come back at or above 4 pCi/L. That ranks Goodhue County #41 of 87 Minnesota counties for the share of homes above the action level. A separate 75.4% of tested homes are at or above 2 pCi/L, which is the threshold the Minnesota Department of Health uses when it recommends action.
About 22 Pine Island homes get tested every year on average, drawing from a stock of roughly 1,789 housing units. The number above is not a forecast for your specific home. Radon varies house to house even on the same street. The number is a reasonable starting line for the conversation, not a prediction. See the full data set for the by-county and by-tract picture.
Three steps. On your timeline.
Measure your radon level.
We start with a measurement of what is actually in the air your family breathes. You see the result we see, and we walk through what it means in plain language.
You see the picture first.
Once you have the result, we talk through what your home is dealing with. No scripts, no pressure. You decide what to do next on your own timeline.
A conversation about your home.
If you want to take action, we look at the basement together and talk through what a plan for your foundation could look like. Every home is its own conversation.
Other towns we cover.
Oronoco
Oronoco wraps around Lake Zumbro, and a lot of the housing here is tied to the water in one way or another. Older lake cabins that got converted to year-round homes, newer builds on lots with a view of the river, and rural acreage homes outside the city limits. The basements vary as much as the homes do.
Zumbrota
Zumbrota has the only original covered bridge left in Minnesota, a downtown that has been continuously occupied since the 1850s, and a real estate market shaped in part by Mayo Clinic commuters. The housing here covers a wider span than the population would suggest.
Byron
Byron has roughly doubled in size since 2000, and most of the housing here is younger than the kids in it. For a lot of homeowners in town, the radon question is something they're thinking about for the first time, often after a coworker brought it up or a neighbor mentioned a test.
Find out your radon levels with a free radon test.
About 42% of tested Olmsted County homes come back above the EPA action level. The surrounding counties are higher. The first step is knowing where yours sits, and that is the part we do for free.