DNR awarding grants to communities in the east metro impacted by PFAS pollution
Sunfish Lake Park in Lake Elmo is a natural enclave.
A place of peace and quiet in a community impacted by PFAS pollution.
“It’s important that we try to recover the environment in some way,” declares Tony Manzara. “One of the goals is to find safe fishing places for people.”
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) says Lake Elmo is one of 17 cities in the east metro with the forever chemicals in their water systems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, say long-term exposure to PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is linked to kidney and testicular cancers, hypertension during pregnancy, increased cholesterol and other health issues.
Manzara, president and a board member of the nonprofit Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center, worries about PFAS chemicals in Sunfish Lake and elsewhere.
“Lake Elmo used to be a good fishing lake,” he says. “It’s deep, there’s lot of different kind of fish, but you’re not supposed to eat the fish because of the PFAS issue.”
In 2018, the state of Minnesota reached an $850 million settlement with 3M, alleging the company’s releases of PFAS chemicals had damaged drinking water and natural resources in the east metro.
“There was up to $700 million for drinking water because of the groundwater contamination from PFAS in those communities,” explains Randall Doneen, a section manager with the Conservation Assistance and Regulation section of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “That’s priority one.”
But now the DNR is rolling out a new $20 million settlement grant program it calls ‘Priority Two.’
A request for grant proposals will begin in February, Doneen says.
Applicants will be asked to first write a letter of intent, and if they get the go-ahead, can submit a full application.
The DNR says applicants can apply for no less than $20,000 per project, and matching dollars are not required.
“When we have releases of hazardous chemicals, we assess what injuries have occurred from the release of those chemicals,” Doneen says. “This is for the natural resources that were impacted, for fish and wildlife, for fishing recreation.”
Some of the grant money could be used for infrastructure projects like a new fishing pier, for example.
But in the case of Sunfish Lake, an approved grant could perhaps help answer a fundamental question: is the fish in the lake safe to eat?
Jeff Holtz, a Lake Elmo City Councilman, and a member of the 3M Settlement Work Group, says grant funds could also be used for habitat restoration, educational opportunities and creating recreational spaces.
“Sunfish Lake, which is right in the heart of Lake Elmo, is a quarter mile from Lake Elmo. That lake does have a fish advisory,” he says. “Horseshoe Lake, which is right next to Lake Elmo, also has a fish advisory.”
Manzara says the nature center is applying for three separate grants, including funding for a landfill project, a fishing pier or walkway across Sunfish Lake and a study on the impact of PFAS on the fish population. He plans to request about $3 million for the landfill, about $500,000 for the walkway and about $100,000 for the fish contamination study.
If the contamination study application is approved, he hopes to hire a private lab to test for PFAS contamination.
“It would actually be nice to know if you could actually eat the fish safely,” Manzara says. “It’s great to at least have some way to restore some of the value to the people of the community.”
The DNR says vetting for the application process will likely run through the summer, with approved grant money likely going out late in the year.
Right now, the Minnesota Department of Health recommends people who are or may become pregnant or plan to breastfeed — and children under fifteen — should not consume fish from the Mississippi River from St. Paul to Wabasha since a mixture of pollutants, including PFAS, have been found in fish tissue.
MDH also has a lake finder, so people can check advisories for lakes in their area.
Meanwhile, Holtz says he supports the DNR’s Priority Two plan.
“Clean drinking water is priority one,” he says. “But the settlement was smart enough in the language to say, this matters, too. There really aren’t other examples where you’re using funds to restore habitat based on a settlement.”
But Holtz isn’t mincing words about the condition of lakes in the east metro.
“There really is not a realistic way to fix a lake, to make sure you can eat fish in the future,” he says. “Right now, that PFAS is still flowing into the lakes, it’s in the sediment, it’s in the water. This is not a ‘this year or next year’ type thing. This is going to be ongoing for decades or centuries.”
You can find a link to the DNR lake finder here.
Click here for KSTP’s full PFAS coverage.