3M proposes cleanup plan for PFC contamination

St. Paul, Minn. — 3M has presented Woodbury, Minn., residents with four options for cleaning up perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) that are leaking into the groundwater underneath a company-owned landfill.

During a public meeting Thursday night 3M officials told residents that the company intends to add a treatment system to several barrier wells that siphon contaminated water from the Woodbury site.

3M spokesman Bill Nelson says the other three options would build on the first proposal by also removing contaminated soils from the site.

"One alternative even includes adding instead of removal adding a layer of a cap, of a four-foot soil cap to just further reduce exposure that anyone traveling that site might have from those materials," explains Nelson.

Nelson says 3M does not think the Woodbury landfill is the source of the city's contaminated drinking water. However, he says the company agrees it should clean up the Woodbury site anyway.

3M will meet with residents in Cottage Grove, Minn., later this month to present its clean up plan for the company's production plant along the Mississippi River. That meeting will be held Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at Cottage Grove Junior High.