After 3 years on bottled water, French Island residents weary of political fight over PFAS

TOWN OF CAMPBELL – As a thunderous boom of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels echoed over French Island on a recent summer day, residents looked up with not awe, but worry.

For years, the small island just over the Black River from La Crosse has been dealing with widespread contamination of "forever chemicals" that moved from the local regional airport into the ground and well water thousands of people relied on.

The contamination stems from the open burn pits once used at the facility to test PFAS-containing firefighting foam, in addition to a crash at an airshow decades ago. Foam was applied to the wreckage to put out the flames, then allowed to soak into the soil and, eventually, the water table.

Ralph Thoren worried, as the planes rumbled over his neighborhood as a part of the annual Deke Slayton Airfest, about the risk of another crash. Would the airport use PFAS to extinguish it again? And how could the mess be cleaned up in time before it moved through the sandy soil and into the water?

Thoren lives about three blocks from the area of the airport where the crash occurred in 1997 during the airshow. He and his family were out of town camping that weekend, avoiding the crowds.

At the time, he mostly worried about the crash because people died.

Now, he worries what the foam applied to the crash may have done to his now-adult children. His youngest daughter, 20, lives at home and has had to adapt to the bottled water the family has been provided by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. But for so many years, she drank out of the tap just like the rest of them.

"I try not to let her know exactly how concerned I am with it. But I was thinking about it and we brought her home from the hospital and the first thing we did was mix up a thing of formula," he said. "I mean, she was raised on PFAS water from day one."

PFAS found in drinking systems across Wisconsin

Wisconsin has been struggling to fight PFAS contamination for years. After discovery of the chemicals in Marinette, stemming from the Tyco Fire Products facility in 2017, more contaminations have been found in groundwater and drinking water across the state. Those in Marinette have been reliant upon bottled water and filtration systems, which are paid for by Tyco.

But on French Island, where residents have been reliant on bottled water for nearly three years, there still isn't an identified responsible party paying for the water, leaving the state on the hook. And thanks to political gridlock in Madison, their problems aren't being solved. Earlier this year, legislation that would have created a structure for spending the $125 million in funding to address PFAS failed, due to disagreements between Republicans and Democrats.

Instead, the residents say they are routinely used as an example by lawmakers, only to be left on their own to figure out how to handle the widespread contamination in the community they didn't create.

Thoren learned about the contamination in his well in 2021, along with the rest of his neighbors, when a letter showed up in his mailbox. Though he has never personally paid to test his well, many of his neighbors have had concerningly high levels of PFAS in theirs.

He and his family's lives have changed since then. There are the heavy five-gallon containers of water that have to be replaced. Then there is the unlearning of using the sink faucet as a safe water. Thoren's wife has stopped keeping a vegetable garden. They can't use the hose to fill up water bowls for their two dogs.

Cooking has become more of a challenge, too. One of the dishes that came to mind was goulash, which his family enjoys.

"It's a whole bottle, whole pot of water," he said. "We can't cook with any other water."

State providing bottled water to more than 1,500 residents

More than 1,500 residents are receiving bottled water from the state Department of Natural Resources, according to Mimi Johnson, the agency's policy director of emerging contaminants.

Wisconsin has spent more than $1.5 million providing water to Campbell residents dealing with PFAS, Johnson said.

But those who live on the island wish they didn't have to rely on bottled water. Some have looked into installing treatment systems in their homes, while others waited with optimism for legislation releasing funds from a $125 million state PFAS trust fund. They hoped that the town could apply for some money to begin work on a water treatment plant, relieving some of the cost for taxpayers.

Instead, residents say they have watched as their community is used as an example by lawmakers as the bill touted as a lifeline failed.

SB 312, the bill aimed at addressing PFAS, was largely written by Sen Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay and Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay. After months of back and forth over the bill with Gov. Tony Evers' administration, the governor ultimately rejected it over concerns that it would limit the DNR's ability to respond to contamination.

That came as a blow to Campbell residents.

Lee Donahue, a supervisor on the Campbell Town Board, said that the legislation was influenced too much by lawmakers more concerned with the potential liability of public water systems and businesses than for the owners of contaminated private wells.

"It's like we've been excised from the conversation," she said. "We are just not a part of the conversation anymore."

Donahue had initial conversations with the Republican lawmakers who authored the proposal, but then those came to a halt. The input of Campbell residents wasn't taken into account, they said, and many residents were ignored when they sent messages to their state representatives.

"Infuriated doesn't begin to encompass all of the emotions wrapped up in this," she said.

The town is installing several deep test wells, to see if the lower aquifers beneath the island are clean enough to provide water for a community system. But that's going to cost money, something legislation could have provided.

Joe Weitekamp, a Campbell resident who lives blocks away from the airport and has 26 parts per trillion of PFAS in his well, said he wished he could put those legislators in his position. Currently, the EPA recommends that no PFAS be present in drinking water, and has a formal standard of 4 parts per trillion — an amount even smaller than a single drop of water in an Olympic-sized pool.

"I would ask legislators...how much (PFAS) would you like dripped into your system at home, for you and your family? That's not a threat," he said. "It's just, get your mind around this. You know, you're fortunate you don't have this problem. But what if you did?"

Thoren, who is also a member of the Town Board, said during the conversation between lawmakers, it felt like the residents of Campbell were made to seem like they somehow caused their contamination plaguing their community, even though they had nothing to do with it. Then at other times, it seemed as though Republicans were trying to protect the companies that used PFAS in manufacturing.

"That's really frustrating," he said.

Wimberger, in an email, said his staff met with residents of Town of Campbell to talk about the legislation. The PFAS bill was created to address their concerns, he said.

He also highlighted the Well Compensation Program, which was given an infusion of federal COVID money in 2022, which allowed those impacted by PFAS to access the funding. But very few people have enrolled in that program.

"It’s clear why no one applies for the funds- reporting your contaminated well is a self-incriminating statement," he said.

While the DNR in the past said it will not take enforcement actions against innocent landowners in those situations, Wimberger worries that the agency could go back on that without formal protections written into state law.

"I'm very concerned about all rural land owners and the wells," he said.

PFAS testing of private wells showed contamination in 2020

The Town of Campbell, on French Island, is a water-rich town between the Mississippi and Black Rivers.

PFAS were first detected on the island in 2014 in La Crosse municipal wells, and testing of private wells began in late 2020, at which point the widespread contamination became evident.

The La Crosse Regional Airport inhabits the northern portion of the island, while the Town of Campbell inhabits the southern portion. French Island is across the Black River from the city and is home to about 4,300 residents and 1,200 private wells.

It's a serene island, surrounded by flowing waters and the sounds of birds swooping through the air. Fishing spots are abundant, and along some of the shores of the town, houseboats bob on small waves.

Over the river, La Crosse provides access to shopping centers and fun things to do, while Campbell is reliably a close-knit and quiet community.

Tragic cancer death raises questions about PFAS connection

It's part of the reason Mike Horstman and his wife moved to the island, and decided to stay after selling their first home.

Now Horstman wonders if their choice to live on French Island is what caused his wife to die of cancer in 2022. She was diagnosed with metastatic stage four ovarian cancer at only 45 years old in 2020, and passed away 27 months later.

Horstman said the oncologist told his wife that this type of cancer wasn't typically found in women so young.

"So right away, our thoughts were that this was related to PFAS," he said.

Although he will likely never know what caused his wife's cancer, Horstman has seen neighbors go through other forms of cancer at a rate he believes is higher than average. He worries for neighbors with young children and he worries for his own kids who grew up drinking PFAS-contaminated water.

"We'll never know definitively, I guess," he said. "But it raises concerns for the other kids. It raises concerns for neighbors, raises concerns for all the neighborhood kids that grew up there."

He said it's been frustrating to watch lawmakers use his home as an example, only to turn around and not get them access to funding that would help.

"It's looking like we're not going to see any real movement on this money until next legislative session," Horstman said. "We can't sustain ourselves on bottled water. Something's got to be done."

Horstman said something needs to be done to get the PFAS out of the water table, and that there need to be studies showing how long it might take for that to happen naturally, or if that's even possible. But residents shouldn't have to live in a place where there are long-term health concerns, or the neighbor's kids can't safely fish and eat their daily catch.

"It seems like this issue is not going to just stop being an issue," he said.

As the Blue Angels continued rumbling overhead, Horstman is plagued by the thought that his children could be at risk of getting sick, just like their mom.

"I didn't grow up here, so I was an adult when I moved here, but that's where I come back to my kids and other kids who grew up here, drinking that water," he said. "You know, they're in their 20s or 30s. What do they have to look forward to?"

For Weitekamp, there's a constant worry that taxpayers like him are going to be left holding the check to deal with this issue.

"How do I deserve to have to pay for all of this out of my retirement income?" he said. "When it wasn't me that put the PFAS in the aquifer?"

What are PFAS?

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances , are a family of man-made chemicals used for their water- and stain-resistant qualities in products like clothing and carpet, nonstick cookware, packaging and firefighting foam.

The family includes 5,000 compounds, which are persistent, remaining both in the environment and human body over time.  The chemicals have been linked to types of kidney and testicular cancers, lower birth weights, harm to immune and reproductive systems, altered hormone regulation and altered thyroid hormones.

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura .

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After 3 years on bottled water, French Island residents weary of political fight over PFAS