As 3M settlement money dwindles - Laserfiche WebLink

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According to the email, 3M approached the MPCA and the state Department of Natural Resources, the two agencies charged with managing the settlement, with an update: The company didn’t believe the drinking water treatment projects those agencies selected for 3M funding were “reasonable and necessary” under the consent order’s spending priorities. And it had initiated mediation to resolve the dispute. “The MPCA and DNR are confident in the selection of projects,” the message read. “But we cannot promise what the transition process will look like so long as 3M’s dispute remains active.” The update concerned Ryan Burfeind, Cottage Grove’s public works director. Levels of PFAS exceed state-set limits in all 12 of the city’s wells, and two 3M-funded treatment plants are on the way. (Temporary plants currently provide residents with clean water, Burfeind noted.) Burfeind said state officials assured him that the 2007 consent order would free up more 3M funding once communities exhausted the settlement. But with the company possibly opposed to that proposition, he said Cottage Grove officials are contemplating a less-than-ideal plan to fundraise for maintenance expenses. “The only option would be to increase water rates,” he said, even though “we don’t feel our residents should have to pay for” the plants’ upkeep. In Hastings, officials recently nailed down a link between PFAS in one city well and the same substances produced at a 3M facility, unlocking roughly $14 million from the company. The city had to prove that connection because Hastings’ location initially excluded it from settlement money, even though tests show all six city wells contain levels of one forever chemical exceeding Environmental Protection Agency limits.