3M lawsuit: City of Hastings sues over alleged PFOA contamination

(FOX 9) - The City of Hastings has filed a lawsuit against 3M accusing the company of contaminating five of its public drinking water wells with perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA, a "forever chemical" linked to serious health risks, via air emissions from its Cottage Grove facility.

This latest lawsuit, filed in late August 2026, comes after massive settlements that saw 3M pay billions of dollars for the contamination of public drinking water.

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Hastings sues 3M

The backstory:

The civil lawsuit cites a standard set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called the maximum containment level, or MCL, as 4 parts per trillion for PFOA in April 2024.

Because the MCL is a mandatory requirement for public water systems, Hastings must comply with it for each of its five affected wells, the lawsuit states.

By the numbers:

The City of Hastings says it owns and operates public drinking water wells that serve about 23,000 residents and more than 7,500 water customers. 

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 26 in Dakota County District Court, focuses on five of those wells which the city says are contaminated with PFOA at levels that require treatment under a new federal drinking water standard.

What are ‘forever chemicals’?

Why you should care:

Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, is a human-made chemical that does not occur naturally in the environment or in humans. It is made up of chains of carbon and fluorine atoms that are chemically and thermally stable, meaning it does not readily break down and can persist in the environment for a very long time — which is why it has been called a "forever chemical."

PFOA can build up in human blood and organs, including the kidneys and liver, and can be passed to a developing fetus through the placenta or to infants through breast milk. Exposure to PFOA has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, liver damage, immune system and endocrine disorders, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, birth defects, decreased fertility and pregnancy-induced hypertension, depending on the level of exposure. Recent research by the National Toxicology Program of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences has also linked certain PFOA exposures to pancreatic cancer.

Accusations against 3M

Timeline:

According to the complaint, 3M invented PFOA and was the only manufacturer of the chemical in the United States from approximately the 1940s through 2002, producing it at a dedicated portion of its 865-acre Cottage Grove facility. 

The city claims 3M manufactured more than 2.5 million pounds of finished PFOA goods at Cottage Grove between 1976 and 1998 alone.

Hastings adds that during this manufacturing process, 3M released substantial amounts of PFOA through smokestacks and other air emissions — and that for many decades, 3M had no air emission controls in place to capture those releases. 

The lawsuit also claims an internal 3M meeting in 1978 noted there were no air scrubbers for the production cells generating PFOA at Cottage Grove. 

3M has also stated, according to the lawsuit, that no emissions controls were in place between 1954 and 1974, and that PFOA was present in treated air emissions as of 1985. 

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency, reported that 3M estimated 1,950 pounds of PFOA compounds were released into the air from vent stacks at Cottage Grove in 1997 alone, with releases occurring between 100 and 200 days per year.

Because Hastings' wells are located southeast of the Cottage Grove facility — and a prevailing wind pattern runs from the northwest to the southeast — the city says PFOA released into the air was carried by wind, deposited onto soils, and then leached into the groundwater that feeds its public wells. 

The complaint notes that water tables in Hastings are shallow and the soil above the bedrock is porous, making it easier for PFOA to move from the surface into the wells. 

3M's own air modeling, the complaint says, supports this pathway, and 3M's own 2025 air emissions report identified PFOA releases from Cottage Grove as a particular concern given the high volume of production and the large magnitude of air emissions associated with that process.

The city also points to the chemical signature of the PFOA found in its wells as evidence linking it to 3M. 

According to the complaint, the PFOA in Hastings' wells contains both linear and branched isomers — a combination that 3M was the only U.S. company to manufacture. 

3M itself, according to the lawsuit, has recently told Minnesota regulators that PFOA is the "primary driver for water treatment at the Hastings municipal wells."

3M response

The other side:

3M shared the following statement in response to the lawsuit:

"The City’s decision to pursue litigation is unfortunate. Over many years, 3M has led industry in addressing PFAS in the environment. In 2000, 3M announced it would exit the manufacture of certain long-chain PFAS and, in 2022, that it would discontinue the manufacture of all PFAS globally by the end of 2025. 3M successfully met that goal.

"Here in Minnesota, 3M in 2018 provided a commitment of $850 million to mitigate PFAS in the State — including drinking water in East Metro communities. That was followed in 2024 by a $10.3 billion commitment to assist public water suppliers across the United States that had detected PFAS in their water or would do so in the future, covering more than 11,000 public water systems across the country. 3M remains willing to engage with the City to discuss any legitimate concerns it may have."

The lawsuit states 3M has also publicly stated that "trace levels" of PFOA found in Hastings' wells are "safe based on decades of research" and that "research shows there are no adverse effects resulting from the low levels at which [PFOA is] found in humans and the environment."