Two weeks after the 3M Co. said it would refuse to pay the cost for providing clean drinking water to several hundred homeowners in the southeastern Twin Cities suburbs, state officials are asking the company to reconsider its position.
In a letter released Monday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) claims 3M is violating a legal agreement it signed 10 years ago that detailed how it would pay for the costs of PFC-contaminated drinking water in east-metro suburbs.
State officials said that if a resolution cannot be found, the costs for providing clean drinking water for those homeowners will be paid by taxpayers, and the state will take legal steps to seek reimbursement from the company.
“3M will meet with the state, but first requires information which the state has not supplied regarding the sources of the PFCs in question,” Brewer said.
For example, firefighting foam used by the Cottage Grove Fire Department didn’t contain PFCs.
A plastics company fire contaminated soil but not the groundwater, officials said.
Although 3M says that there is no proven health risk to PFCs in drinking water, the state said that doesn’t matter.
The 2007 legal agreement between the state and 3M states that the company will provide clean drinking water if supplies are shown to exceed any safe level established by the Minnesota Department of Health.
The standoff comes at a time when mitigation costs are escalating for the affected communities — Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Woodbury and St. Paul Park.
It’s possible that the dispute won’t be resolved until the conclusion of a long-awaited lawsuit Minnesota filed against 3M alleging damage to groundwater and the Mississippi River.