Minnesota cities maintain plans to remove ‘forever chemicals’ from drinking water
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The Trump administration announced last month it plans to uphold limits on the two most common types of "forever chemicals" in drinking water.
But it plans to delay the deadline for water utilities to meet those standards and roll back limits on four other potentially harmful PFAS chemicals.
PFAS is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. It’s a class of thousands of chemicals used in a wide variety of products, such as nonstick cookware, water repellant clothing, carpet and firefighting foam.
In Minnesota, the federal changes likely won’t change much. Twenty-two Minnesota public water supplies have PFAS levels above the limits.
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Several cities with elevated PFAS levels are moving ahead with plans to install treatment systems to remove the chemicals from their water supplies — some with money from the state of Minnesota’s 2018 legal settlement with 3M over contamination in the east Twin Cities metro.
However, not all cities are eligible for settlement dollars or enough to cover their full costs. The extended deadline could give cities struggling with financing expensive treatment systems more time to seek help from the state or federal government.
In a statement, the Minnesota Department of Health said it will continue its work with cities “to reduce PFAS levels in drinking water, address health risks and meet federal standards as promptly as possible.”
PFAS dangers
PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they’re extremely durable, and don’t break down in the environment. They can be found in humans and animals across the globe.
For decades, 3M made PFAS in the east Twin Cities metro, where they contaminated the drinking water of several communities.
Exposure to PFAS has been linked to low birth weight, fertility problems, thyroid disease and some cancers.
The Minnesota Department of Health sets advisory limits for PFAS in drinking water that cities strive to meet. However, the Biden administration was the first to set enforceable limits for PFAS in public water supplies.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under President Joe Biden, set limits for six types of PFAS that are to close to zero. Water utilities were supposed to meet the new standards by 2029.
Trump administration changes
Under President Donald Trump, the EPA said it will keep stringent limits on the two most common types, known as PFOA and PFOS — the ones that 3M made here in Minnesota. But the agency says it will give cities an extra two years to meet the new limits, until 2031.
While it’s keeping the limits on the two most common PFAS, the EPA also plans to rescind limits on four other substances.
Because of that change, Battle Lake and Roosevelt Court, a mobile home park in Bemidji, are dropping off the list of Minnesota communities whose PFAS levels exceed the limits imposed under the Biden administration.
Minnesota cities react to deadline extension
The new 2031 deadline to comply with PFAS standards won’t affect the city of Woodbury, which is building a new water treatment plant and installing 17 miles of pipeline. Mary Van Milligen, the city’s public works director, said the federal changes won’t affect the project.
“We plan to continue forward with urgency, and get our plant online as soon as possible,” likely summer of 2028, she said.
Money from the 3M settlement and some federal funds will cover most of the $350 million cost, Van Milligen said. Woodbury water users will less than $20 million.
The federal changes also won’t affect Lake Elmo, where a new treatment plant should be online this summer, said Jeff Holtz, a city council member. Designs for a second plant are underway, he said.
Holtz noted that although the federal regulations may change, the science around PFAS has not.
“The health danger is not from a year of exposure or two years of exposure,” he said. “The danger is a lifelong exposure, the accumulation of PFAS in your body. That's where the known health impacts arise.”
Funding treatment costs
Some cities say the extra time could be a cushion in case they run into construction delays or supply chain issues with their treatment projects.
The city of Hastings is building three new treatment plants to meet the federal limits. They would have been finished just four to six months before the previous federal deadline, said Dan Wietecha, city administrator.
“It didn’t have a whole lot of room for anything to go wrong or delay in what’s really a pretty sizable and complex construction project,” he said.
Hastings is receiving some money from the 3M settlement, but only a fraction of the $69 million cost, so water rates are going up.
The city is asking the state Legislature for financial help, but it’s not clear whether that money will get approved this session. Wietecha said it’s possible Hastings might delay the next phase of the project and try again for state funding.
Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski said he’s happy the federal government is giving cities more time to meet the standards — as long as they’re also trying to find more money to help cities pay for treatment costs.
Stillwater is building a temporary facility to remove PFAS from one of the city’s wells, but two other wells are close to the limits. The cost is estimated at $50 million to $70 million — compared to the city’s annual budget of about $15 million, Kozlowski said.
“If they can spend two years trying to figure out how to make it easier for Stillwater to fix this problem, I’m all for it,” he said. “But just kicking the can down the road doesn’t really help us.”
After PFAS were discovered in Sauk Rapids’ drinking water, the city stopped using two wells, drilled a new one and pumped the water to its treatment plant, said city administrator Ross Olson.
But the city doesn’t have as much water as it had before, Olson said. In a dry year, it could have to take water conservation measures such as watering bans, he said.
Sauk Rapids needs to drill two new wells. The city is asking the Legislature for $3.5 million in state bonding money to help with its PFAS-related costs. But Olson worries that the federal delay might take away the sense of urgency state lawmakers feel to address the funding.
“We’ve done what is right. We’ve done what we needed to do for the community and our citizens, and that's to close the contaminated wells down,” he said.
Other ways to address PFAS
Avonna Starck, state director of the advocacy group Clean Water Action Minnesota, said the federal changes show why it's important for states to take the lead in regulating PFAS.
“It’s telling that the world is taking action, and the federal government is sitting on their hands,” she said. “I find that really, really frustrating.”
Starck said it also highlights the importance of preventing PFAS from ending up in the water supplies in the first place. Minnesota sought to do that that two years ago when it passed Amara’s Law, which bans products intentionally made with PFAS by 2032.
It was named for Amara Strande, a 20-year-old who grew up in Oakdale, an area where the drinking water was contaminated with PFAS. She died of a rare cancer in 2023.
There were attempts at the state Capitol this year to weaken the law, but most have not passed.
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