They're called forever chemicals because that's roughly how long they last. PFAS — the family of compounds used in nonstick pans, stain-repellent fabric, firefighting foam, and a thousand other products — don't break down in the environment or in your body. They build up. And they were invented, and manufactured for decades, right here in Minnesota.
This is a Minnesota story from beginning to end, and it's got a genuine villain, a genuine reform, and a bill that isn't fully paid.
The contamination, and the settlement
3M made PFAS at its plant in Cottage Grove and disposed of the waste around the east metro for decades. The result is contaminated groundwater across Washington and Dakota counties — the drinking water of roughly a dozen communities. By the end of 2021 the state had issued more than 1,451 private-well advisories for PFAS.
Minnesota sued, and in February 2018, 3M agreed to pay $850 million — one of the largest environmental settlements in state history, roughly $720 million after legal fees, jointly managed by the state's pollution-control and natural-resources agencies to fund clean drinking water in the affected area. It was a real win, and Attorney General Lori Swanson deserved the credit she got for it.
The books already show it's not enough
Here's the part that matters for anyone who thinks $850 million closes the book. It doesn't, and the state's own accounting proves it.
The settlement's spending plan divides the money into capital projects, long-term operation and maintenance, and a contingency reserve. Look at where the reserve stands: in fiscal 2025 alone the program spent about $91.3 million, the capital account is fully committed, and $162.5 million of the $183 million contingency has already been committed — with a roughly $26 million reallocation planned for the next year specifically because of cost overruns.
Translate that: the emergency reserve is nearly spent, the main accounts are maxed, and costs are running higher than projected — seven years into a cleanup that has to run for decades. The $850 million was historic, and it is going to fall short of the full cost of getting PFAS out of Minnesota's water. Someone will pay the difference. The only question is whether it's the polluters or the public.
Minnesota's answer: stop making the problem
Where Minnesota genuinely leads is prevention. In 2023 the Legislature passed what's known as Amara's Law (Minn. Stat. § 116.943), named for a young Minnesotan who died of cancer linked to PFAS. It's one of the strongest PFAS laws in the country:
- As of January 1, 2025, PFAS are banned in eleven product categories — carpets and rugs, cleaning products, cookware, cosmetics, dental floss, fabric treatments, children's products, menstrual products, textile furnishings, ski wax, and upholstered furniture.
- As of January 1, 2032, PFAS are banned in all products except uses the state deems "currently unavoidable" — a near-total phase-out.
- And manufacturers had to report their PFAS uses by January 1, 2026, so the state can actually see where the chemicals are.
I'll be precise, because precision is the point of this series: Maine passed a broad ban first, so Minnesota isn't literally first-in-nation. But Minnesota is among the small handful of states — with Maine and Washington — that went furthest, and it's arguably the strongest at pairing category bans with a hard phase-out date and mandatory reporting. That's a real accomplishment.
The parts still unresolved
The drinking-water standards are in flux. Minnesota's own health-based guidance values for the two most-studied PFAS are far stricter than the federal limits — the state's PFOA value is roughly 500 times tighter than the EPA's. The EPA set national drinking-water limits in 2024, then in May 2025 moved to roll back several of them and push compliance deadlines to 2031. So the federal floor is wobbling, which makes Minnesota's own standards, and its own enforcement, more important, not less.
And the next frontier is the farm. PFAS spread through biosolids — treated sewage sludge used as fertilizer — are contaminating farm fields and the food and water around them. The federal government's draft risk assessment on biosolids landed in January 2025, and this is shaping up to be the next chapter of the crisis, one that reaches from the east metro's wells out into rural Minnesota's cropland.
What we can do
Make the polluters pay the shortfall, not the public. The state's own books show $850 million won't cover it. The "polluter pays" principle should be the rule for the remaining cost — from 3M and from the other manufacturers whose PFAS are in Minnesota's water and soil — rather than quietly shifting the bill to ratepayers and taxpayers. This is exactly the kind of case the Attorney General's office exists to bring.
Defend Minnesota's standards against the federal rollback. With the EPA weakening national limits, Minnesota's stricter health-based values are the real protection for Minnesotans' water. Hold them, and fund the enforcement.
Enforce Amara's Law and prepare for 2032. The category bans and reporting requirements only work if the state checks compliance and holds manufacturers to the phase-out. The reporting data coming in should be public, so Minnesotans can see where the chemicals still are.
And get ahead of the biosolids crisis. Test farm fields, set thresholds before contamination spreads further, and don't let the cleanup Minnesota is already struggling to fund in the east metro repeat itself across the state's cropland.
Minnesota didn't ask to be the birthplace of forever chemicals, but it was, and it's led the country in trying to end them. The unfinished business is the bill — and the principle that the company that made the mess, not the family drinking the water, should pay to clean it up.
First the facts. Then the fix.
Sources
The 3M PFAS settlement: the $850 million agreement (Feb. 20, 2018; suit filed 2010) resolving claims over east-metro groundwater contamination in Washington and Dakota counties, jointly administered by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources, with roughly $720 million net after fees — per the state's 3M settlement site (3msettlement.state.mn.us); the settlement conceptual spending plan (capital ~$317 million, operation and maintenance ~$115 million, protection ~$70 million, contingency ~$183 million, administration ~$15 million) and the fiscal 2025 spending report showing about $91.3 million spent, the capital account fully committed, $162.5 million of the $183 million contingency committed, and a roughly $26 million reallocation planned for fiscal 2026 due to cost overruns, read from the primary spending PDF. More than 1,451 private-well advisories issued by the end of 2021 across 14 east-metro communities, per the Minnesota Department of Health. Amara's Law: Minn. Stat. § 116.943, enacted 2023 Minn. Laws ch. 60, art. 3, § 21, verified verbatim against raw text at revisor.mn.gov — the eleven banned product categories effective January 1, 2025 (subd. 5(a)), the near-total ban on non-"currently unavoidable" uses effective January 1, 2032 (subd. 5(d)), and the manufacturer reporting deadline of January 1, 2026 (subd. 2), administered by the MPCA. Health guidance values from the Minnesota Department of Health (PFOA 0.0079 parts per trillion; PFOS 2.3 parts per trillion), with the state PFOA value roughly 500 times stricter than the surviving EPA 4-parts-per-trillion limit. EPA's 2024 national PFAS drinking-water limits and the May 14, 2025 partial rollback rescinding limits on other PFAS and extending compliance to 2031; EPA's draft biosolids risk assessment (Jan. 14, 2025). Safer States groups Maine, Minnesota, and Washington as the states with the broadest PFAS restrictions; Maine (2021) enacted the first broad product ban.
This article does not call Minnesota "first-in-nation" on a broad ban (Maine was first); several figures — including the DuPont/Chemours national settlement amount and the exact affected population — were flagged for verification and are not stated. Corrections: campaign@madgettformn.com.