Agendas for February meetings of 3M Settlement work groups now available

The agendas for the Feb. 19 meeting of the Citizen–Business Group and Feb. 20 meeting of the Government and 3M Working Group are posted on the 3M Settlement website. Both groups will continue to develop a better understanding of possible water supply options for the East Metropolitan Area with presentations by St. Paul Regional Water Services, and the Lincoln–Pipestone Rural Water system.

The groups will also be discussing the planning and selection process for expedited projects.

Questions about these meetings can be emailed to pfcinfo.pca@state.mn.us.

3M Settlement biannual report

The Minn. Pollution Control Agency and Minn. Department of Natural Resources recently submitted the 3M Settlement biannual report to the legislature. A link to it is available on the homepage of the 3M Settlement website. The report includes expenditures of 3M Settlement funds, progress on reaching safe drinking water and groundwater sustainability goals, among other items. On a related note, the MPCA recently submitted a report on work regarding 2018 Residential Well Sampling for PFAS compounds. It also summarizes all sampling work done in the East Metropolitan Area since 2003. This residential well sampling work is done as part of a 2007 Consent Order between the MPCA and 3M, and technically is not part of the 2018 3M Settlement. A link to this report is available on the MPCA's 2019 Legislative Reports webpage.

In February 2018,  Minnesota and the 3M Company settled their lawsuit regarding natural resource damages associated with a group of chemicals known as PFCs. 3M made a grant of $850 million as a condition of the settlement to address two priorities in the east metro area. Priority 1 is safe drinking water and groundwater sustainability. Priority 2 is restoring and enhancing natural resources.