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Top image: industrial smoke stacks. Middle image: three workers looking at foam on top of a small stream. Bottom image: Hand holding up a walleye.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, are a family of nearly 5,000 chemicals now pervasive in the environment. Called “forever chemicals,” they do not break down and can bioaccumulate in both humans and other living organisms. Some PFAS are toxic.

Minnesota requires a strategic, coordinated approach to protecting families and communities from these ubiquitous substances.

In Minnesota, PFAS contamination was first measured in the eastern Twin Cities in the early 2000s. Since then, PFAS have been detected in water, sediment, soil, and fish all across Minnesota. PFAS are in air emissions from industrial facilities, wastewater from industrial and municipal sources, soil and water surrounding firefighting training sites, groundwater surrounding landfills, and are sometimes found with no obvious source at all.

Scientists and environmental regulators have reached an overwhelming consensus that significant actions are needed to prevent adverse impacts from PFAS. While management and mitigation actions have significant positive effects, ultimately Minnesota cannot clean our way out of the PFAS problem. Instead, the pollution must be prevented from the outset through restrictions or bans on PFAS uses and assistance and financial support for reformulation.

12061: Minnesota's PFAS Blueprint
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Minnesota's PFAS Blueprint

Short- and long-term opportunities to manage PFAS in our environment and protect families and communities.

Minnesota's strategy for PFAS

  • Prevent PFAS pollution wherever possible.
  • Manage PFAS pollution when prevention is not feasible or pollution has already occurred.
  • Clean up PFAS pollution at contaminated sites.

Ten priorities to protect communities and families

Working together, Minnesota state agencies developed Minnesota’s PFAS Blueprint to support a holistic and systematic approach to address PFAS concerns in ten key issue areas. The significant interconnections and overlaps between different areas illustrate the complexity and difficulty of managing PFAS.


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Measuring PFAS effectively and consistently

State agencies have developed multiple efforts to ensure consistent and accurate PFAS analytical results. Despite this important work, it is currently impossible to quantitatively measure the vast majority of PFAS in the environment.


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Understanding risks from PFAS air emissions

Federal and state governments have not developed PFAS health screening value for air as there is limited research about the toxicity of PFAS from air exposure. Minnesota also has limited information on which facilities emit PFAS to the air.


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Quantifying PFAS risk to human health

Risk assessments are needed to ensure that levels of contaminants in the environment are protective of the community’s health.
 


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Preventing PFAS pollution

Pollution prevention approaches are designed to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals and prevent the need for expensive treatment and remediation efforts. More work is required to prevent non-essential uses and releases of PFAS.


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Limiting PFAS exposure from drinking water

Minnesotans value safe and sufficient drinking water. MDH has planned for, and has ongoing monitoring efforts in place, that will cover at least 90 percent of people served by community water systems by 2025.


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Limiting PFAS exposure from food

Minnesotans should have confidence that their food is safe from harmful toxins. Research has shown that PFAS can accumulate into produce and livestock from contaminated water, air, soil, and animal feed or migrate into food from PFAS-coated cookware and food packaging.


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Reducing PFAS exposure from fish and game consumption

Hunting and fishing are a way of life in Minnesota. Continued research of PFAS in fish and wildlife has indicated that some compounds can accumulate in commonly consumed fish and game tissue. More work is required to ensure safe consumption of fish and game is maintained for future generations.


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Protecting ecosystem health

New research models and tools for ecological risk assessments are being designed for the unique physical and chemical properties of PFAS. Using new data and research, Minnesota can ensure its ecosystems are healthy and diverse.


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Remediating PFAS-contaminated sites

While state agencies have developed several health-based clean-up values, Minnesota does not have a comprehensive list of PFAS uses in manufacturing and industrial processes and a comprehensive understanding of risks to human health. More information is needed to determine the locations of and risks posed by possible releases of PFAS into the environment.


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Managing PFAS in waste

Because widespread use in products, PFAS are entering Minnesota’s waste streams and going to solid waste facilities and wastewater treatment plants where it is difficult and expensive to address. The most strategic approach to managing PFAS is preventing them from entering waste streams in the first place.


Opportunities for action

The Minnesota PFAS Blueprint identifies short- and long-term opportunities, as well as legislative actions, to manage PFAS in our environment and protect families and communities. Over the coming months and years, state agencies will further develop these strategies and engage Minnesotans on how best to implement them.

Future needs and opportunities are complex and resource-intensive. State agencies and community partners will need to work together to undertake projects that most strategically advance the collective goal to protect human health and the environment from the impacts of PFAS.

Short term (within the next two years)

  • Making progress on statewide water quality standards for PFAS-Class 1 drinking water. (Ongoing, request for comments published)
  • Creating a plan for monitoring PFAS in groundwater at active landfills. (March 2022)
  • Generating a plan for monitoring PFAS at NPDES permitted facilities. (March 2022)
  • Compiling information on inhalation PFAS toxicity. (Ongoing, see existing risk guidance values)
  • Developing a plan for performance testing for PFAS at permitted air sources. (March 2022)
  • Issuing guidance on the collection and disposal of PFAS-containing firefighting foam concentrate and wastewater. (Ongoing)
  • Researching cutting-edge risk assessment techniques for data-poor PFAS. (Ongoing)
  • Updating guidance for recommended compound testing at cleanup sites to include PFAS. (March 2022)

Long term (more than two years)

  • Assessing the need for acute wildlife risk assessment from exposure to PFAS-containing foam.
  • Requiring mandatory air toxics, including PFAS, reporting from facilities.
  • Providing financial and technical assistance to businesses for switching from PFAS-containing products.
  • Developing soil to groundwater leaching values for PFAS to be used in cleanups and disposal guidance.
  • Developing an epidemiological study of residents exposed to PFAS through drinking water.
  • Requiring labeling of PFAS-containing products.
  • Assessing the need for developing statewide water quality standards for PFAS-Class 2 aquatic consumption, aquatic life.
  • Limiting or banning PFAS in known non-essential uses.

More information