Met Council joins state's lawsuit against 3M

MPR reports the Metropolitan Council wants 3M to pay to clean up a chemical polluting the Mississippi River. The Met Council says it will have to invest $1 billion in carbon filtration to meet new regulations on PFCs in wastewater. The agency says paying for that would require a 40 percent rate increase on wastewater services in 105 cities throughout the metro.

Author:: BMTN Staff
Updated:: Mar 8, 2018
Original:: Nov 8, 2011

MPR reports the Metropolitan Council wants 3M to pay to clean up a chemical polluting the Mississippi River. The Met Council says it will have to invest $1 billion in carbon filtration to meet new regulations on PFCs in wastewater. The agency says paying for that would require a 40 percent rate increase on wastewater services in 105 cities throughout the metro.

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The council wants the manufacturer to pay for the cost of removing its chemicals used to make Scotchgard that was discharged into the Mississippi River. Met Council officials say the agency faces spending $1 billion in order to filter out the chemicals.

The Pioneer Press reports on a new twist in the legal fight between 3M and the Met Council and state of Minnesota. Last year the state and Met Council sued the company, saying PFCs it had manufactured had damaged the environment. Now 3M is suing the Met Council, claiming the council bears responsibility for PFCs in the river because the chemical is in treated wastewater.

It allotment comes after the DNR asked for $10 million in emergency funding in order to build a barrier on the St. Croix River to deter the invasive fish. The council says they're shaving off money from several other projects in order to free up the money.

The law firm handling a Minnesota suit against 3M has been ordered off the case because of a conflict of interest. The firm has previously represented 3M. The judge's ruling is a blow to the state's case involving chemicals formerly made by 3M that turned up in rivers, lakes, and groundwater.

The Metropolitan Council has decided not to award a nearly $100 million contract to URS Corp. Instead, the Star Tribune reports the agency divided engineering work for the $1.25 billion Southwest Corridor light-rail line into four separate contracts. San Francisco-based URS will still be allowed to bid on the smaller contracts, despite its involvement with the Sabo pedestrian bridge and the Interstate 35W bridge before it collapsed in August 2007.

The metro area's population will grow by a third and the "gross metro product" will reach $400 billion during the next three decades, according to a report from the Metropolitan Council. "Our forecast finds that migration for economic reasons will be a strong factor in our expected population growth," says the council's chairwoman, Susan Haigh.

Both 3M and Cogent deny any wrong doing, but have agreed to pay $1.9 million to shareholders and their attorneys. Bloomberg reports the investors claim Cogent CEO Ming Hsieh favored 3M to collect a retention bonus. The Maplewood-based company paid about $943 million in 2010 for Cogent.

Monitoring wells at a landfill in Woodbury have turned up an increase in PFCs, but tests of local drinking water show no significant changes. 3M says that's a good sign that a new cleaning system is doing its job.

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