THE LATEST: Continuing concern about possible contamination from chemicals produced at 3M’s Cottage Grove facility has state health officials seeking volunteers for a study of perfluorochemical levels in residents near the plant and several landfills.

BACK STORY: PFC-containing wastes were disposed in a number of landfills in the east metro and have seeped into the groundwater and contaminated numerous private wells and some municipal wells.

3M has financed a filtering system for two Oakdale wells and hookups with city water for more than 200 Lake Elmo homes whose wells showed PFC levels above state health guidelines.

STUDY IS MANDATORY: The legislatively required study will measure PFC levels in 200 adults who live in the east metro area, where the drinking water has been found to contain PFCs, the state Health Department said.

TO BE ELIGIBLE: Adults must live in one of the two communities that are part of the study:

• Households served by the Oakdale municipal water supply.

• Households in Lake Elmo and Cottage Grove with private wells contaminated with perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and/or perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Also, potential study participants must have been living at their current home before Jan. 1, 2005.

The Health Department will send letters to 500 qualifying households this month.

From the forms that are returned, 100 people from each of the communities (Oakdale and Lake Elmo/Cottage Grove) will be selected at random and asked to be part of the study.

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