Free Minnesota water report: PFAS & lead levels for every water system, worst-affected cities, and EPA violations. Check your ZIP.
Minnesota's drinking water serves approximately 5.7 million residents in the Land of 10,000 Lakes – a state that actually contains over 11,800 lakes, along with thousands of miles of rivers and vast groundwater reserves. The Twin Cities metro area draws from the Mississippi River (Minneapolis and St. Paul) and from a network of groundwater wells tapping the Prairie du Chien-Jordan and other deep aquifers. Greater Minnesota communities rely on a mix of surface water and groundwater, with the state's western tier dependent on aquifers beneath the agricultural prairie and the northeastern iron range drawing from Lake Superior and local surface sources. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) regulates about 6,700 public water systems and has been one of the most active state agencies in the country on PFAS.
Minnesota holds a singular place in the PFAS story: it is where the contamination was first discovered and where the first major legal reckoning took place.
The 3M Cottage Grove facility in Washington County, southeast of St. Paul, is ground zero for PFAS – not just in Minnesota, but globally. 3M invented Scotchgard and other PFAS-based products at this facility and disposed of waste at the nearby Woodbury and Oakdale dumps for decades. The contamination plume from these disposal sites has affected groundwater across the Twin Cities east metro, contaminating drinking water wells serving hundreds of thousands of people.
PFAS levels in some east metro monitoring wells have exceeded 100,000 ppt – among the highest concentrations ever recorded in residential groundwater. The contamination has been found in private wells, municipal wells, surface water, and even in the blood of east metro residents at levels significantly above the general population.
In 2018, Minnesota reached an $850 million settlement with 3M – at the time, the largest environmental settlement in the state's history. The funds have been directed toward treating contaminated water supplies, extending municipal water to affected homes on private wells, and monitoring the ongoing contamination.
MDH has set Health-Based Values (HBVs) for multiple PFAS compounds that are among the most protective in the nation: PFOS at 15 ppt, PFOA at 35 ppt, PFBS at 100 ppt, and PFHxS at 47 ppt. These values function as de facto drinking water standards and trigger advisory and response actions when exceeded.
Minnesota is, along with Michigan, at the epicenter of the national PFAS crisis. The 3M Cottage Grove site is the most significant industrial PFAS contamination site in the country – the literal origin point of the compounds that are now found in the blood of virtually every person on Earth.
The state's regulatory response has been proportionate to the scale of the problem. MDH's PFAS program is one of the most developed in any state agency, with dedicated toxicologists, hydrogeologists, and public health staff focused specifically on PFAS. The department has evaluated and set health-based values for more individual PFAS compounds than any other state health agency.
Among Upper Midwest states, Minnesota's situation is far more severe than Wisconsin's (which has emerging but less characterized contamination), Iowa's (which has minimal military PFAS sites), or the Dakotas'. Michigan is the closest comparator, with its combination of military and industrial contamination.
The $850 million 3M settlement – negotiated by then-Attorney General Lori Swanson – established a model for state-level PFAS litigation. It also created the 3M Settlement Natural Resource Trustee Council, which manages the settlement funds for water treatment, monitoring, and habitat restoration.
Minnesota has more PFAS data than most states, which means residents have better tools for understanding their exposure.
1. Check your specific location at the homepage. We incorporate MDH's extensive monitoring data into our ZIP-code-level results. 2. East metro residents (Washington County, eastern Dakota County, eastern Ramsey County) are in the highest-risk zone. If you are on a private well, contact the MDH Private Well PFAS Program to request testing. Many east metro communities have already extended municipal water connections to affected homes using 3M settlement funds. 3. Greater Minnesota residents should be aware that PFAS contamination is not limited to the east metro. Military installations (including Camp Ripley), airports, and industrial facilities have shown detections across the state. 4. Review our water filter guide for treatment options. Given Minnesota's extensive data, you can make a well-informed decision about whether and how to filter. A detailed water report shows your area's specific history.
Minnesota's place in the PFAS timeline is unique. 3M began manufacturing PFAS-based products in the 1950s at its Cottage Grove plant, south of St. Paul on the Mississippi River. For decades, waste from the manufacturing process – including spent solvents, wastewater, and solid waste – was disposed of at landfills in Woodbury, Oakdale, and Lake Elmo. These disposal sites sat atop the porous glacial geology of the east metro, and PFAS migrated downward into the drinking water aquifers that serve the area.
The contamination was discovered in the early 2000s when MDH began investigating elevated PFAS levels in municipal wells in Oakdale and Lake Elmo. The investigation expanded rapidly as testing revealed a contamination footprint stretching across miles of the east metro. 3M initially disputed the health significance of the findings, but mounting evidence – including blood testing that showed east metro residents had PFAS levels well above national averages – forced a reckoning.
Minnesota sued 3M in 2010 under the state's Natural Resources Damages statute. Eight years of litigation, investigation, and negotiation culminated in the $850 million settlement in 2018. The settlement created a multi-decade framework for addressing the contamination: treating municipal wells, connecting private well users to clean water, monitoring groundwater, and restoring affected natural resources.
The east metro response has included installation of granular activated carbon treatment systems at multiple municipal well fields, construction of new water mains to extend treated water to neighborhoods previously on private wells, and ongoing monitoring of groundwater flow and PFAS migration. The Washington County groundwater monitoring network is one of the densest in the nation, with hundreds of monitoring wells tracking contamination movement in three dimensions.
3M's broader PFAS legacy extends far beyond Minnesota. The company voluntarily phased out PFOS production in 2002 and announced plans to exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025. But the compounds already in the environment – in water, soil, and the blood of billions of people – will persist for decades or longer. Minnesota, as the origin point, will be dealing with the consequences longer than most.
The Mississippi River, which runs through the heart of the Twin Cities, is both a drinking water source and a receiving body for treated wastewater. PFAS in wastewater effluent discharges to the river from the Metropolitan Council's treatment plants, creating a pathway for contamination to reach downstream communities. MDH and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency have been working to characterize and reduce these discharges.
Check your address to see the most current data for your location. In the state where PFAS was born, understanding your specific exposure is not a luxury – it is a necessity.