Read the full article by Deena Winter (Minnesota Reformer)
“The 3M Cottage Grove chemical plant that contaminated 200 square miles of east metro drinking water has been operating on a water pollution permit that expired more than 20 years ago.
But now the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued an over 400-page draft of a new wastewater permit for the plant, which the agency says is one of the most rigorous in state history. It requires that per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances — known as PFAS — be removed to the point they cannot be detected, through an advanced treatment system 3M is building.
3M says it’s on track to invest nearly $300 million in advanced water treatment systems at its Cottage Grove facility. The system, on which construction began in 2021, is engineered to remove a range of PFAS from water as part of a long-running cleanup program.
3M says the technology will continue to remediate PFAS in area groundwater even after the company exits the PFAS market by the end of 2025.”…