Minnesota Sues 3M Over Pollution Claims

The state of Minnesota has sued 3M Co., saying that the company contaminated the state’s waters for decades with chemicals used in some of its best known products, including Scotchgard stain repellent. The lawsuit, filed by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, seeks a cleanup of the waterways and unspecified damages.

3M did not respond to an e-mailed request for a comment.

According to the complaint, St. Paul-based 3M polluted public and private wells in the state for years by pumping the perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, it uses to make fire retardants, paints, stain repellents and other products into waters flowing into the Mississippi River and by burying the chemicals underground.

The Minnesota cities most affected by the releases, according to the complaint, include Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Woodbury and Lake Elmo.

3M, one of Minnesota’s biggest employers and best-known public companies, manufactured PFCs in the state from the 1950s through 2002. It stopped making them following negotiations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which says the chemicals pose serious risks to human health and the environment.

The attorney general said 3M set aside $117 million in reserves for potential environmental liability relating to its disposal and discharge of PFCs.

Some PFCs have been linked to cancer in experiments with laboratory animals, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

In a report earlier this year, the health department noted that a recent study of 3M employees by the company suggested a positive association between exposure to some PFCs and prostate cancer, cerebrovascular disease and diabetes.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher. Editing by Robert MacMillan)