Comprehensive East Metro PFAS Cleanup Study Recommends Groundwater Treatment 

Today, the MPCA recommended drilling a series of wells around the East Metro to pump and treat groundwater for pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This recommendation is part of a broad effort to clean up a plume of PFAS contamination and is one of several that comes from a seven-year feasibility study of options for reducing PFAS from groundwater and surface water.

The East Metro PFAS cleanup study, funded by the $850M settlement that Minnesota reached with 3M in 2018, focused on the area served by the Valley Branch Watershed District’s Project 1007 rainwater conveyance system in the East Metro. The study builds on extensive scientific research and proposes the best available options to improve water quality in the Project 1007 area and prevent the spread of PFAS contamination to other areas. Investing in these options would be more cost-effective in the long term than current measures that treat drinking water alone.

This research also underscores the extreme longevity and mobility of PFAS in the environment as well as the need to prioritize PFAS pollution prevention by phasing out nonessential use of these chemicals.

“Minnesota’s East Metro communities and state agencies have been working hard to protect drinking water supplies from PFAS for 20 years,” said MPCA Assistant Commissioner Kirk Koudelka. “This feasibility study points the way forward with options for a more robust environmental cleanup to remove PFAS from surface water and groundwater while preventing the East Metro PFAS plume from spreading further.”

Recommendations include:

• a system of wells that pump out PFAS-contaminated groundwater, treat it, and return it back to the aquifer or distribute it to cities for drinking water
• surface water treatment to reduce surface water concentrations of PFAS
• barriers to prevent people and wildlife from coming into contact with soil or sediment contaminated with high levels of PFAS
• long-term monitoring of groundwater and surface water to ensure cleanup is working as planned

Ideally, PFAS would be destroyed immediately after being removed from the environment, so the feasibility study compared six PFAS destruction technologies. The PFAS destruction results for all technologies are promising. More research is needed to identify a PFAS destruction technology that is viable at scale.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are sometimes called “forever chemicals” due to how long they remain in the environment without breaking down. PFAS are toxic, persistent pollutants that accumulate in human bodies and are difficult to remove from water sources. Minnesota’s PFAS Blueprint, developed by multiple state agencies, identifies strategies for preventing, managing, and cleaning up PFAS pollution throughout the state.

Learn more about the feasibility study and check out the interactive storymap.