Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Pfas Contamination And Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Michigan PFAS advocate tells Minnesota committee personal contamination, urges state‑funded testing and stronger procurement and labeling
Summary
A Michigan resident and co‑chair of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network told Minnesota’s Capital Investment Committee that extremely high PFAS levels contaminated her community’s drinking water, called for state‑funded blood testing (especially for children), and urged procurement, labeling and farmer protections to limit further harm.
Sandy, co‑chair of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network, told the Minnesota Capital Investment Committee that her Michigan community discovered extremely high PFAS in drinking water and that the contamination has caused widespread illness and long‑term consequences.
“I lost my husband to cancer after his diagnosis came during what we thought would be routine surgery,” Sandy said, recounting family and neighborhood impacts. She said state environmental staff tested her private well and reported PFAS in drinking water at 24,000 parts per trillion, with readings she said reached as high as 80,000 ppt in some samples. She described the contamination’s local source as industrial disposal on a property she identified as being owned by Wolverine Worldwide, which she said allowed chemicals to reach the aquifer and contaminate roughly 30 square miles of wells and municipal systems.
Sandy summarized health concerns linked to PFAS, calling them a large, persistent class of chemicals (she cited about 14,000 variants) and listing associated conditions she said have been found in studies: elevated cholesterol, liver and thyroid damage, kidney cancer, low birth weight and impaired vaccine response in children. She told the committee she obtained a private PFAS blood test in 2017 (she said it cost about $800) and reported a very high personal blood result—on the order of 5,000 nanograms per milliliter—then underwent targeted medical monitoring that led to a thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment; she reports five years cancer‑free.
Sandy urged Minnesota to fund blood testing for affected communities, especially children. “If you test infants’ bloods, you’re getting a two‑for‑one because infants were not using the products themselves; they got PFAS from their mothers,” she said, and asked legislators to consider state coverage for clinically ordered testing.
She also raised agricultural concerns tied to biosolids (treated wastewater solids) spread as fertilizer: when wastewater contains PFAS, biosolids can transfer contamination to farmland, milk and crops, she said, citing examples in Michigan where farms and dairy operations suffered economic losses. She recommended developing protections for farmers before broad testing programs that could trigger land‑use and market harms.
On regulatory and market responses, Sandy recommended clearer definitions of PFAS to support product bans and procurement policies, stronger labeling of consumer goods, and use of public procurement and insurance markets as levers to reduce manufacture and use of intentionally added PFAS. She referenced the C8 study and said she could provide reports the committee requested.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about biosolids management, state procurement policies and the feasibility of blood testing; several members praised Minnesota’s existing PFAS work and noted the high estimated infrastructure costs the committee has seen for statewide wastewater and remediation work. The committee approved minutes for its Feb. 26 meeting during the session and discussed a bipartisan House file referenced by a member as moving through the legislature.
The meeting closed with the committee thanking the testifier and scheduling its next meeting on March 5.
