Washington County / 3M seeks new test wells for old dump
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
WOODBURY, MN - The 3M Co. is proposing to drill 15 new wells to test Washington County's water for pollution by chemicals the company created.
Plans for the wells are included in a draft plan to monitor pollution that was requested of 3M by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
If drilled, the new wells would double the number of wells clustered around an old 3M waste disposal site in Woodbury.
State officials believe the Woodbury site is leaking PFBA, or perfluorobutanoic acid, which has been discovered in drinking water in Woodbury, Cottage Grove, St. Paul Park, Newport and Hastings. But they don't know for sure, and the new wells would help them find out.
"3M is committed to identifying the source of the PFBA, and the plan for Woodbury is an important first step," 3M spokesman Bill Nelson said.
Officials believe PFBA is coming also from other dump sites in Oakdale and Lake Elmo, but the draft plan didn't address those sites, which already have wells for pumping and cleaning water and for monitoring the spread of pollutants.
In 2004, two types of PFCs — perfluorochemicals — were discovered in the drinking water of Lake Elmo and Oakdale. The PFCs were used in the manufacture of Teflon and Scotchgard stain repellent, and some PFCs were dumped by 3M in the two sites.
In 2005, the Maplewood-based company agreed to install a filter in Oakdale's water system. It also subsidized the capping of private wells and hooking residents to city water in Lake Elmo. Pollution in that area triggered a lawsuit between 3M and people who drank the polluted water, a suit which could go to trial as early as this fall.
Officials were surprised in January by the discovery of a new chemical, PFBA, which is used in the manufacture of photographic film.
It was found in drinking water over a broader area but in amounts so low that officials said it wasn't an immediate health threat. The long-term effects of low doses of PFBA haven't been studied.
The discovery led to a series of public meetings and some anxiety about water quality in cities from Lake Elmo to Hastings.
The 656-acre Woodbury dump site straddles the Woodbury-Cottage Grove border. The site already is ringed with 13 wells, which help officials prevent pollution from seeping into groundwater to the south.
Some of the wells, called barrier wells, pump out large volumes of water to be treated and then returned to the ground. Other wells help scientists monitor underground water to see how far the chemicals have traveled.
