The cost of drinkable water in Cottage Grove keeps increasing — but only for 3M Co.
The costs are for perfluorochemical mitigation projects after two Minnesota agencies — the Department of Health and the Pollution Control Agency — lowered the recommended levels of PFOS and PFOA in drinking water. The city shut down five wells and reduced pumping for three, enacted a watering ban and created a plan to reintroduce water from affected wells at lower PFC levels.
The short-term plan for treatment involves installing eight large carbon filters on City Well 10 on 95th Street in the next few weeks, which will cost an estimated $2.2 million, City Engineer Jennifer Levitt said.
A similar filtration system will be added to Well 3.
The long-term solution likely will be a water-treatment facility.
Under an agreement signed by 3M and the Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) in 2007, 3M is required to pay any remediation costs for contamination issues stemming from their disposal sites.
Travis Carter, public affairs director with 3M counsel Brewer Attorneys, said 3M has spent more than $100 million on various mitigation efforts.
The company footed about $5 million for a water-treatment plant in Oakdale in 2005 and pays ongoing costs of operation.
James Kelly, environmental health manager for the Health Department, said he would expect the cost of a Cottage Grove facility to be between $5 million and $10 million.
3M sent a letter last week to the Health Department and Cottage Grove officials contesting total responsibility for PFC levels in city water, saying they could not confirm that all contamination was caused by the company.
Kelly said the Health Department’s “conclusion all along” has been that 3M is responsible for the PFC levels and is therefore responsible for mitigation costs.
The only possible exception in Cottage Grove is a site near U.S. 61 where firefighting may have left traces of PFC contamination, he said.
3M is also responsible for private well mitigation through the MPCA.
Carbon filtration systems, which the MPCA will install in homes on affected private wells, cost several hundred dollars.
“They (homeowners) shouldn’t have to worry about any of those costs,” Krueger said.
On occasion, Krueger said, plumbing work may be needed in a home.
“The homeowner may incur some upfront costs, but then the MPCA will reimburse,” he said. “We don’t want homeowners to have to pay for something they’re not responsible for.”
Mayor Myron Bailey, in a Facebook post, assured citizens the cost will not fall on them.
“We deserve clean water,” Bailey said. “We will get clean water. This issue was not caused by Cottage Grove. It should not be paid for by Cottage Grove citizens.”