Water-drinking public worried — or not — about 3M pollution in Washington County

An informational meeting about water pollution in Washington County was swamped with questions for state officials Tuesday evening. Another meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. “I don’t like it,” said Bridget Shore, holding her baby boy at the Oak-Land Junior High School meeting in Lake Elmo. “There are a lot of young families around here.” A group of about 70 people gathered to learn about chemicals in their water that were manufactured by the 3M Co. Officials have said that the chemicals are particularly worrisome for fetuses, babies and breast-feeing mothers. Traces of the chemicals — called perfluorochemicals, or PFCs — were discovered in the drinking water of about 65,000 Washington County residents in 2004. The chemicals apparently had leached into the water from waste dumps, where the company disposed of the chemicals, ending in the 1970s. The meeting was hosted by the state’s Department of Health and Pollution Control Agency. Until recently, the urgency of issue of PFCs in water had been fading. 3M stopped making the chemicals in 2002, and since then the levels in fish, river water and people…

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