Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Issues Final PFAS Reporting and Fees Regulations

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), in a December 8, 2025, State Register Notice, adopted the final version of its rules governing the reporting of products with intentionally added per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) sold, distributed or offered for sale in Minnesota. MPCA, on that same day, announced it was undertaking a “soft launch” of its reporting system in December 2025. That system is expected to be open to all manufacturers in January 2026, in advance of the reporting deadline of July 1, 2026.

Background

Minn. Stat. § 116.943, subd. 9, requires MPCA to adopt rules that govern, among other things, the requirement that manufacturers that sell, offer for sale or distribute products with intentionally added PFAS in Minnesota provide MPCA with certain information on those products and to impose fees to cover MPCA’s implementation costs. Although the original statutory deadline to begin reporting was January 1, 2026, MPCA used its authority under the statute to extend that deadline to July 1, 2026. (See MPCA Extends PFAS Product Reporting Deadline by Six Months).

MPCA issued its proposed reporting and fees rules on April 21, 2025, and on August 28, 2025, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Jim Mortenson issued a report identifying a procedural defect and several substantive defects in the proposed rules. (See Fredrikson’s previous summaries of the proposed rules and the ALJ’s report). Then-Acting Interim Chief Administrative Law Judge Tim O’ Malley concurred with ALJ Mortenson’s Report, which had the effect of requiring MPCA to address the deficiencies before it could adopt its rules.

Substantive Deficiencies Addressed in Final Rules

In its State Register Notice, MPCA listed a number of changes it made to its rules to address the substantive deficiencies identified by ALJ Mortenson. Among the more significant changes:

• Clarification on number of reports: Minn. R. 7026.0020, subp. 1, now makes clear that manufacturers or groups of manufacturers need only submit a single report that includes information for each product or component with intentionally added PFAS that they sell, offer for sale or distribute in the state, as opposed to an individual report for each product.
• Clarification to scope and content of annual reports: In addition to “product description” clarifications, Minn. R. 7026.0030, subp. 1, now makes clear that annual reports due on February 1 each year must cover the previous calendar year, not “the previous 12 months,” as originally stated.
• No “annual recertifications”: MPCA originally required manufacturers, under Minn. R. 7026.0040, to “recertify” their previous annual reports if no other update was necessary to their previous annual report. The final version of that rule removes this requirement and its associated fees.
• “Waiver” discretion scaled back: Under the statute, MPCA must waive all or part of the information required of manufacturers if that information is “publicly available.” ALJ Mortenson found the discretion MPCA gave itself under the original version of Minn. R. 7026.0500 to reject invocations of public availability to exceed MPCA’s statutory authority. MPCA removed the offending language from the rule’s final version.
• Single Reporting Deadline Extension: Minn. R. 7026.0060, subp. 2, now makes clear that a manufacturer or group of manufacturers may only request a single extension to the reporting deadlines established under rule 7026.0030.
• Fee Amount Reduced: Finally, in response to the ALJ’s determination that the original $1,000 fee for the initial report proposed under Minn. R. 7026.0100 exceeded MPCA’s reasonable costs to implement the program, MPCA lowered that amount to a flat $800 fee in the final rule.

Procedural Deficiency Previously Addressed

ALJ Mortenson, in his Report, disapproved the entire set of rules on procedural grounds because MPCA failed to thoroughly assess “what effect Minnesota’s PFAS reporting requirements will have on businesses in relation to the federal reporting requirements,” such as those under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). He concluded this failure to assess the rules’ cumulative effects failed the standards of review under Minn. Stat. § 14.05, subd. 1, and Minn. R. 1400.2100(A) and MPCA’s proposed rules could not be approved until it completed that analysis.

Although not referenced in the State Register Notice (and not previously available on either the Office of Administrative Hearing’s (OAH) or the MPCA’s websites), MPCA filed its assessment of the rules’ “cumulative effects” with the OAH on October 27, 2025. MPCA concluded MPCA’s reporting requirements would rarely be duplicative of other federal or state PFAS reporting requirements; as such, any “cumulative effects” would be limited.

On October 31, 2025, Chief ALJ Tim O’ Malley approved the modifications to MPCA’s rules, including the substantive changes MPCA proposed to the OAH but that were not made public until the State Register Notice.

Reporting System “Soft Launch”

On the same day it published its final rules in the State Register, MPCA shared on its “Reporting on PFAS in products” webpage that it will begin a “soft launch” of its PFAS Reporting and Information System for Manufacturers (PRISM) with a small group of manufacturers later this month. The new system is based on the High Priority Chemicals Data System in use in other contexts. MPCA expects to make PRISM available to all manufacturers on its website beginning next month, in advance of the July 1 reporting deadline.

Remaining Rulemaking

MPCA’s next step in completing its statutory rulemaking obligations will be to establish rules surrounding “currently avoidable uses.” Currently unavoidable use determinations will establish which uses of PFAS are exempt from the broad prohibitions on all uses of PFAS in products sold in Minnesota that is due to take effect on January 1, 2032.

Fredrikson’s Environmental Team will continue to monitor and report on developments related to the new PFAS requirements and myriad other new environmental regulations forthcoming from MPCA. Please contact us if we may assist you in navigating this new regulatory environment or with any of your environmental law needs.