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Minnesota’s Drinking Water Action Plan details [FULL]
Minnesota's health officials announce the state's first plan to address the current and emerging threats for safe drinking water.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced a 10-year plan to protect the state’s drinking water from threats such as PFAS contamination and high levels of nitrates.
Emerging threats from PFAS and nitrate
What we know:
The state legislature tasked MDH in 2023 to create a statewide plan that addresses current and emerging threats to safe drinking water.
"We can actually figure out how to mitigate or avoid those risks in the future," said Paul Gardner, the retired administrator of the state’s Clean Water Council.
The council will fund grants for communities to identify and address those threats with testing and improved infrastructure.
"We can never guarantee what happens to our water but we can reduce the risk to our water," Gardner said.
MDH found 97% of the state’s drinking water meets federal safety standards, according to a 2024 report. However, 3% of communities had fallen below the standards due to excessive levels of nitrate and arsenic.
Local perspective:
Minnesota has been dealing with nitrate contamination in the southeast part of the state for several years.
In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency notified state agencies that thousands of residents in that part of the state may be drinking well water contaminated with unsafe levels of nitrate.
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit earlier this year accusing some of those same agencies of not doing enough to stop the water from being contaminated by farm fertilizers.
PFAS contaminating more water in east metro
The backstory:
The launch of the first-ever task force comes as several metro cities try to deal with the growing contamination of PFAS.
In the east metro, hundreds of thousands of homes have been impacted by PFAS contamination caused by 3M.
Cities are using money from the state’s settlement with 3M to overhaul their water treatment systems.
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Everywhere & Forever: Blood. Water. And the Politics of PFAS.
A new FOX 9 documentary tells the inside story of how 3M contaminated the world’s blood and water. Video depositions exclusively obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators reveal what company executives said under oath.
The City of Woodbury is currently in the middle of a $330-million that will create a new treatment plant and replace miles of underground piping.
The FOX 9 Investigators found earlier this year that future funding for such projects is now in question as 3M questions whether all projects are reasonable and necessary.
RELATED: Watch FOX 9's documentary EVERYWHERE & FOREVER: BLOOD. WATER. AND THE POLITICS OF PFAS.
More residential wells are also being flagged for health advisories because of better and more frequent PFAS testing, according to state data obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators.
The underground plume of PFAS, caused by 3M’s dumping of chemicals in landfills that then leached into the groundwater for decades, is slowly moving towards the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers.
Homeowners who live in or near the plume are encouraged to have their wells tested.
What's next:
The action plan will be updated every two years.
The action plan is funded with money from Minnesota’s Clean Water Fund.
That funding expires in 2034.