MINNEAPOLIS — Democratic candidates are being targeted with hit pieces that distort their record on clean water and PFAS “forever chemicals” in Minnesota. 

The Virginia-based Make Liberty Win political action committee has flooded mailboxes and doorknobs with mailers and lit pieces, accusing Minnesota Democrats at the State Capitol of being so busy passing a “radical agenda” that they’ve abandoned clean water efforts.

The mailers come complete with photos of trash in a lake, a mysterious green substance in a sink, and a poison warning skull symbol with the letters “PFAS” inside it.

The pieces are landing in the Lake Minnetonka area, where Democrat Tracy Breazeale is running in House District 45-A and Democrat Ann Johnson Stewart is running in a special election in Senate District 45.

“I’m a strong proponent of making sure we continue to keep our lakes clean, free of aquatic invasive species, that we’ve got clean drinking water alongside of that,” Breazeale told KARE.

She was shocked to see the mailers linking her to dirty water and PFAS, part of an onslaught of campaign literature arriving in the district in one form or another.

“Some have been hung on doors, some have been coming out through the mail. Some have been e-mail. Some have been other forms of electronic distribution,” Breazeale explained.

To start with, Breazeale has not been in the legislature. She’s serving her second term on the Minnetonka Beach City Council, which voted to build a new water tower that captured the iconic look of the old one. The council also supported a new water treatment plant that will filter PFAS beyond what’s required by the EPA.

“I’ve learned more about water infrastructure, PFAS, what it takes to build a new water tower, what it takes to build new water plant and all that goes into that,” she said. 

The facts don’t support the claim that Democratic lawmakers have abandoned clean water efforts. 

Since 2009 your tax dollars have gone to the Clean Water Fund, to protect and restore water quality in lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater. Part of your lottery money has gone to the outdoors, which includes water quality initiatives.

In the 2023-2024 session, the DFL-controlled legislature voted to spent $318 million from the Clean Water Fund to clean water projects for 2024 and 2025. Those include environmental mitigation as well as assistance with water treatment plants.

In the same budget cycle, lawmakers devoted $25 million in lottery proceeds to water quality projects. In the current two-year budget cycle, Democrats also devoted $45 million to PFAS mitigation and filtering projects across the state. 

Lawmakers passed some of the toughest laws in the nation regulating PFAS in products.

“This is a beautiful community. Water is really important. Lake Minnetonka is literally the centerpiece of our district,” Ann Johnson Stewart told KARE.

She’s a civil engineer who specializes in environmental engineering and infrastructure, who served two years in the Senate in 2021 and 2022, when Republicans controlled that chamber.

“I’ve already met with all the engineers, and the public works directors and the mayors, because when you have small communities like this, they have to share water, or they share sewer interceptors, or they share maintenance kinds of activities.”

She was surprised by the messaging in the mailers, looking to pin dirty water and PFAS on her and her fellow Democrats. It’s especially significant because the battle for control of the legislature is largely fought in mailboxes and doorknobs.

“I mean, water is the whole reason that I’m really motivated in my job to make sure everybody has clean water, and that we don’t have PFAS. So, it was pretty ridiculous and just one of many pieces we’ve seen.”

Make Liberty Win has not responded to KARE’s inquiry, as of the deadline for this story.

Here’s a summary of the PFAS-related provisions from HF 2310, the 2023 Environment and Climate Budget bill, as prepared by the nonpartisan Minnesota House Research staff:

• $2,070,000 each year from the environmental fund for the Pollution Control Agency (PCA) to develop and implement a program related to emerging issues, including Minnesota’s PFAS Blueprint.
• $500,000 for a report on firefighter turnout gear and firefighter biomonitoring (see below for more information).
• $50,000 from the remediation fund for a work group to develop recommendations for PFAS manufacturer fees (see below for more information).
• $63,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $92,000 in fiscal year 2025 for the commissioner of health to amend the health risk limit for PFOS.
• $25,000,000 for grants to support planning, designing, and preparing for solutions for public water treatment systems contaminated with PFAS and for the PCA to conduct source investigations of PFAS contamination and to sample, address, and treat private drinking water wells.
• $4,210,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $210,000 in fiscal year 2025 for PFAS reduction grants, which includes $4,000,000 for grants to industry and public entities to identify sources of PFAS entering facilities and to develop pollution prevention and reduction initiatives.
• $1,163,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $1,115,000 in fiscal year 2025 from the environmental fund for rulemaking and implementation of the new PFAS information requirements and product bans (more information on the policy below).
• $478,000 from the environment and natural resources trust fund (ENRTF) for the University of Minnesota to develop novel methods for the detection, sequestration, and degradation of PFAS in Minnesota’s lakes and rivers.

That legislation also contained the following policy provisions, according to the memo from nonpartisan House Research staff:

• Article 3, Section 1, requires manufacturers of a product containing intentionally added PFAS to submit certain information to the PCA by Jan. 1, 2026. The section also bans certain categories of products (carpets or rugs, cleaning products, cookware, cosmetics, dental floss, fabric treatments, juvenile products, menstruation products, textile furnishings, ski wax, and upholstered furniture) containing intentionally added PFAS beginning January 1, 2025. The PCA is given authority to ban additional products through rulemaking and a total ban on products containing intentionally added PFAS becomes effecting January 1, 2032, with exceptions for products where the use of PFAS is currently unavoidable as determined by the commissioner.
• Article 3, Sections 18 & 19 modify PCA reporting requirements related to the 3M settlement and east metro private well testing for PFAS.
• Article 3, Sections 25-27 & 31 prohibit the use of firefighting foam containing PFAS effective January 1, 2024. Certain exceptions would apply, including exceptions for airports and oil refineries and terminals.
• Article 3, Section 30 requires the PCA to establish a work group to review options for collecting a fee from manufacturers of PFAS in the state and submit a report to the legislature by February 15, 2024.
• Article 3, Section 32 requires the PCA to submit a report to the legislature regarding PFAS in turnout gear by January 15, 2024, including recommendations and protocols for PFAS biomonitoring in firefighters.
• Article 3, Section 33, requires the PCA to adopt water quality standards for six PFAS by July 1, 2026.
• Article 3, Section 34, requires the commissioner of health to amend the health risk limit for PFOS by July 1, 2026.
• Article 9, Section 9, allows St. Louis County to use a portion of its environmental trust fund for projects to protect Lake Superior and other waters in the Great Lakes watershed from PFAS contamination from landfills.