Bipartisan bill would use 3M settlement dollars to test private wells

The eight-year lawsuit between the state and 3M Company is over, but the work to mitigate decades of potential industrial water contamination is still underway.

Sponsored by Rep. Tony Jurgens (R-Cottage Grove), HF3709 would require the Pollution Control Agency to test private wells for perfluorochemicals, a compound developed by 3M, if requested by the owner or occupier of an east metropolitan property with a private well.

The area is defined in the bill as Afton, Cottage Grove, Lake Elmo, Newport, Oakdale, St. Paul Park and Woodbury, and the townships of Denmark, Grey Cloud Island and Lakeland.

The bill was held over by the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee Tuesday for possible omnibus bill inclusion. Its companion, SF3163, sponsored by Sen. Karla Bigham (DFL-Cottage Grove), awaits action by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee.

MPCA Assistant Director Kirk Koudelka testifies before the House environment committee March 20 on a bill sponsored by Rep. Tony Jurgens, right, to provide private well testing for contamination from PFCs in the east metro. Photo by Andrew VonBank

The idea behind the bill came to Jurgens during a meeting in Cottage Grove when a resident asked what process they’d need to undergo to get their well tested.

“Although I’m paraphrasing, [the answer] was basically ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you;’ it was when the PCA decides the landowners or certain wells are within the plume or an affected area,” Jurgens said. “I understand the reasoning for that, they’ve got access to the information of where the most likely contaminants are, but I think the residents of the area should have a little say in it as well.”

The money to test private wells would be drawn from the $850 million 3M paid as part of the lawsuit settlement. If tests show chemical contamination is at or above 50 percent of the health risk limit, the PCA would be required to provide additional testing.

Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL-Mpls) asked the PCA to take a broader approach in testing well water.

“Shouldn’t we be putting in monitoring wells that would help more than one family?” Wagenius said. “… Wouldn’t we be better off trying to help more people than randomly testing individual wells?”

Kirk Koudelka, PCA assistant commissioner, said the agency is currently sampling wells that are in low-risk areas and areas in near-exceedance of health values, in addition to wells within the affected areas.

“Our work right now in moving forward is identifying all the wells exceeding Department of Health guidance values, establishing a buffer around the plume to make sure that we know there are no effects of the chemicals of concern,” Koudelka said.

The bill would require the PCA to report an annual summary of the results to the communities tested and to the Legislature. The agency would also post the results on its website.