A group of residents from the Tri-Lakes area in Lake Elmo and Oakdale are asking state officials to provide bottled water until they can get testing done to show whether their private wells have PFAS chemical levels exceeding the new limits for drinking water announced in April by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s just not acceptable to wait this long,” said Debbie Dean, who lives near Lake Demontreville. “It’s unrealistic to expect us to wait a year or six months. We have grandchildren. I went out and bought water.”

A group of residents plan to attend the Lake Elmo City Council meeting on Tuesday night to express their concerns, Dean said.

“It appears that the Lake Elmo/Oakdale dumpsite plumes are expanding or changing direction,” Tom and Daryl Seifert and Pat and Debbie Dean wrote this week in a letter to residents. “The MPCA has informed us of a lengthy backlog for testing polluted wells. This is causing great anxiety in our neighborhood. We are disappointed with the slow response from the state, and we are asking for immediate relief with bottled water for our use until the state can determine if our wells are safe.”

Lake Elmo and Oakdale are among several in the east metro that are stepping up efforts to handle the “forever chemicals” after the EPA on April 10 finalized standards of no more than 4 parts per trillion for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

The updated guidelines mean that wells in the area may be above the allowable drinking water standards. “Currently, the number of contaminated wells tested and identified by the MPCA stands at six, with many additional homeowners waiting for their wells to be tested,” the letter states.

The plume of PFAS contamination has moved north of Lakes Demontreville and Olson, which is why some wells in the area are now exhibiting levels of PFAS that make the drinking water unsafe, Dean said.

If a well is found to be contaminated, bottled water is supplied free of charge until a charcoal filter system can be installed, but there is an extended wait to get wells tested through the PCA, and “it can take months before the results are available,” she said.

Dean said she is concerned about the wait. “If the wells are fine, we don’t need (bottled water),” she said. “But chances are, they are polluted.”

There are between 7,000 and 8,000 private drinking water wells in 14 communities in the east metro, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The MPCA collects samples as residents request the agency to gather them, and, to date, agency staff have sampled about half of the private wells in all of the east metro, said Becky Lentz, assistant director of communications for the MPCA.

People can request sampling using an online form: webapp.pca.state.mn.us/gw-sampling-req/.

The state provides bottled water to residents whose well results have exceeded the Minnesota Department of Health’s health-risk index “until those residents get connected to municipal water or install a whole-home treatment filter,” Lentz said.

Lake Elmo Mayor Charles Cadenhead said Monday that he would encourage anyone who lives north of where the plume was originally located to get their wells tested.

“The MPCA is actively trying to figure out where wells are impacted,” he said.

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