Environment panel debates upcoming deadline on banning ‘forever chemicals’

Amara Strande died in April 2023 at the age of 20 from fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of liver cancer.

She linked her illness to “forever chemicals” (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS) that contaminated the water supply in her hometown of Oakdale. Her advocacy at the Legislature was a key factor in enacting Amara’s Law, which prohibited PFAS in 11 product categories, beginning Jan. 1, 2025.

Another upcoming deadline prescribed by Amara’s Law is for manufacturers to report all intentionally added PFAS in products sold in Minnesota to the Pollution Control Agency by July 1, 2026.

More than a half-dozen manufacturers testified, either in person or in written comments, to the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Thursday asking the PCA to extend that deadline by a year or more, saying they need more time to collect the vast amount of data required.

Plus, they said the PCA’s online reporting system is plagued with glitches that will make compliance extremely difficult if not impossible unless fixes are forthcoming.

Nora Strande, Amara’s younger sister, had a very different take on the situation. She outright scolded the manufacturers and refuted their arguments.

“Every year, companies not unlike the ones you’ll hear from today, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on corporate lobbyists to fly across our country and claim that Minnesota’s Amara’s Law is a failure,” she said.

“These corporations have every resource at their fingertips to comply with our laws. Instead of spending money on lobbyists trying to gut bills like Amara’s Law, these corporations could use that money to comply with our laws to help us build a safer future without PFAS.”

The complaints aired before the committee by manufacturers wanting extensions were similar in tone: PRISM, the PFAS Reporting and Information System for Manufacturers developed by the PCA, is not flexible enough to adequately capture the high amount of complex data manufacturers must submit to comply with the law.

“We are concerned that the current aggressive reporting timeline and missing functionality in the reporting system create a substantial risk of disruption to in-state manufacturing and sales,” said Philip Johnston, vice president of environmental promotion office at Daikin Applied Americas, an HVAC equipment manufacturer in Plymouth.

In a letter sent to the committee, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce was highly critical of the PCA’s reporting system. “PRISM thus far has been plagued with issues, ranging from information technology shortcomings to substantive, complex problems. The product was nearly impossible to use, plagued with IT and substantive errors, and despite marginal fixes, is not sufficient to intake the information required by statute.”

After making a presentation on PFAS pollution prevention and management, and the PRISM system, PCA officials defended the reporting system, saying a beta release in January identified the shortcomings test users experienced.

Kirk Koudelka, assistant commissioner for land policy and strategic initiatives, pledged that the agency is using that feedback to ensure the PRISM system will work as promised by the July 1 reporting deadline.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2032, Amara’s Law will prohibit in Minnesota any product that contains intentionally added PFAS, unless the PCA has determined that the use of PFAS in the product is unavoidable.