Minnesota Drafts Rules on PFAS Exemptions, Seeks Public Input by March 29

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has published draft rule concepts that will determine which products containing intentionally added PFAS can still be sold in the state after a sweeping prohibition takes effect January 1, 2032. The window to weigh in closes March 29, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. CDT.

The rulemaking, tracked under Revisor ID R-4837, centers on the concept of "currently unavoidable use," or CUU. Under Minn. Stat. § 116.943, any product with intentionally added PFAS will be banned from sale, offer for sale, or distribution in Minnesota starting in 2032 unless the MPCA has formally determined through rulemaking that the PFAS use qualifies as a CUU. The draft concepts establish the criteria the agency will use to make those determinations.

The MPCA held a webinar on February 26, 2026, to walk through the draft concepts, and has since posted a recording, presentation slides, and a written summary of the proposed rule concepts. The agency opened the public feedback period the same day and is collecting input through March 29.

The draft concepts go further than a simple eligibility checklist. According to commentary from legal analysts tracking the rulemaking, the summary includes a detailed list of questions for manufacturers, including which specific components, product types, or product categories they intend to seek a CUU determination for. The draft also provides the agency's working definition of what would constitute a significant disruption of commercial, public, or ecosystem services on which society relies, a threshold that will likely determine whether marginal uses make the cut. The MPCA also draws a distinction between existing products and novel ones, though the full contours of that distinction have not been published in detail.

The CUU rulemaking sits inside a larger regulatory package under Minn. Stat. § 116.943 that includes PFAS reporting and fee requirements. Minnesota's 2023 Products Containing PFAS law requires manufacturers to submit product-level PFAS data to the MPCA for anything sold or distributed in the state, and critically, that reporting obligation applies even to product categories exempt from the prohibition itself, such as medical devices.

The reporting timeline has produced some conflicting signals in available documents. The proposed PFAS in Products: Reporting and Fees Rule, issued for public consultation on April 21, 2025, stated that manufacturers would be required to file initial reports by January 1, 2026. Legal commentary tracking the Minnesota program, however, references a July 1, 2026, reporting deadline, noting that many manufacturers are understandably reluctant to acknowledge publicly the presence of intentionally added PFAS in their products, although Minnesota will soon force this issue. The MPCA has not publicly clarified whether these dates refer to different program requirements or whether one supersedes the other, and the discrepancy warrants direct confirmation from the agency before manufacturers finalize compliance timelines.

The rulemaking process stretches well past this month's comment deadline. The MPCA has scheduled a second round of check-in group meetings or a webinar for Fall 2026, followed by a second webinar in Winter 2026-27. In 2027, the agency plans to incorporate all collected feedback into a proposed rule and Statement of Need and Reasonableness before publishing a Notice of Intent to Adopt Proposed Rules in the State Register. Final rule adoption timing, the agency has acknowledged, will depend entirely on how the public engagement process unfolds and what administrative steps follow.

Legal observers have noted that Minnesota's approach differs in key respects from Maine's CUU rulemaking process and that state's final rule, though the specific divergences have not been detailed in publicly available summaries. Minnesota's January 2032 prohibition deadline gives the rulemaking real urgency: manufacturers that cannot obtain a CUU determination in time will need to reformulate products or exit the Minnesota market entirely.