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Who will the $850M 3M settlement help?

Minnesota's DNR and Pollution Control Agency commissioners will be the trustees of the money, with a top goal of fixing drinking water problems.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - After reaching an $850 million settlement with 3M over chemicals contaminating water in the east metro, Attorney General Lori Swanson introduced the trustees of the money.

"The goal of the lawsuit was to bring solutions to the people of Minnesota," Swanson said.

The state Department of Natural Resources and Pollution Control Agency are in charge of the $850 million and how it will be spent. They say the focus will be on providing access to clean drinking water and rehabbing natural resources, more so than trying to remove those chemicals from the ground.

"How you get PFCs out of the water? You really don't. there's no way to. If you think of the natural way to get the PFCs out of the water, it would take hundreds of years," said Pollution Control Agency Commissioner John Linc Stine.

Stine said money will be used to fix city water systems and help homeowners with wells.

"New wells, new treatment systems at the municipal level. For home owners, the solution may be to connect them to the municipal system or perhaps extend the municipal system so they can be provided with treated water from the municipality," Stine said.

And the DNR is involved because of damage to natural resources, such as a section of the Mississippi River where fish are not safe to eat. Commissioner Tom Landwehr says money will be used on projects on shores.

"Can we facility fishing opportunities in other locations. Can we put fishing piers out. Can we put accesses out in lakes that are not contaminated so there are alternatives for people to go," Landwehr said.

A working group from the affected cities will help determine where money will go.

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