PFAS and my community
A map of the St. Croix Valley (my home) east of 3M’s St Paul headquarters showing PFAS test results for private wells. Purple dots indicate a well that evidenced PFAS at levels often an order of magnitude above EPA’s current proposed Drinking Water guidance.
The image above is from an interactive map of the St Croix Valley in Minnesota showing test results of (mostly) private wells conducted by the State of MN screening for PFAS. The St Croix Valley refers to the area east of St. Paul (and east of 3M Headquarters and several landfills 3M used for years) over to the St. Croix River, a protected waterway that meets the mighty Mississippi about 30 km south of where this map ends. The purple symbols indicate wells where PFAS was identified; green symbols show where PFAS was not identified above the detection limit of the method, which seems to vary between 25-70 part per trillion. The data associated with each purple *hit* almost always indicates PFAS levels that exceed the EPA’s recently proposed rule for “forever chemicals” (4ppt for PFOS and PFOA, HI<1 for 4 other PFAS). The well data I looked at often shows that wells exceed the EPA’s proposed rule for PFOS and PFOA (EPA says these 2 are “likely carcinogens”) as well as for four other PFAS compounds that are evaluated as a group…that’s three failure per well. Given that EPA’s proposed regulation is more recent than any of the data reflected here, we can expect many of the “green” wells to turn “purple” once the State of MN implements improved analytical methods and we look more carefully at those wells.
I imagine that similar maps, with similar rashes of purple dots, are appearing around the country, in communities that are near airports, military bases, landfills & waste sites, fluorochemical manufacturing facilities, and textile & paper mills. I’ve lived in the St. Croix Valley for most of my life and in my community, the water from these purple wells is used by families for drinking, cooking and bathing, as well as for agriculture supporting both crop and livestock production. Much of the water feeding the contaminated wells eventually ends up in the St Croix River, a protected National Scenic Riverway. I’m no wildlife expert so I can’t even guess at the number of species that live in and around the river. I am, however, a careful observer of Bald Eagles, fish-eating raptors that are incubating their eggs in Minnesota during the dreary months of Feb and March, in nests positioned about every 2km down the St Croix River as it slogs towards the Mississippi. Like the human babies born in my community, I expect the eaglets hatched this spring will carry a PFAS burden, even before their first meal. To me, this map of my own community really brings into focus the inescapability of a chemical that essentially never breaks down. It’s overwhelming to think of what might be needed to turn all these purple wells - and the St Croix River - green again.
It’s overwhelming, too, to think of the corporate greed and willful ignorance that led us to this point.
MN friends, here’s the link to the interactive map if you’d like to learn more about PFAS in your community. You can also request free testing by the state if you live in Minnesota east of the 3M St Paul campus.
