Evers urges finance committee to release $125 million earmarked for PFAS

A PFAS advisory sign along Starkweather Creek. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday asked the Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee to release $125 million set aside for the remediation of PFAS contamination in the state budget last summer.

The funds have sat unused for months because the budget set aside the money but did not include a mechanism to spend it.

PFAS are a family of manmade chemical compounds that are found in products such as firefighting foam, nonstick pans and fast food wrappers. Known as “forever chemicals” they do not break down easily in the environment, persisting in the water and wildlife. PFAS contamination has been connected to health defects including cancer.

A Republican bill, authored by Green Bay Sens. Robert Cowles and Eric Wimberger, to create a number of programs to use the funds has passed both chambers of the Legislature. However after initial hopes of a bipartisan compromise , Democrats and conservation groups have opposed the bill due to concerns that it kneecaps the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) ability to hold polluters accountable and qualifies polluting entities themselves as “innocent landowners” who are eligible to receive state funding to clean up contamination while avoiding sanctions from the DNR.

Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay) discusses the amendments to his bill to address PFAS contamination across Wisconsin. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Throughout the process, residents of communities affected by PFAS have said that what they really want is for the state to establish standards setting the amount of PFAS allowable in groundwater — the source of drinking water for millions of Wisconsinites with private wells. A DNR rulemaking effort on groundwater standards has stalled because its estimated costs run into a state law that requires legislative approval if they exceed $10 million.

Earlier this month, with just days left before the Assembly finished its work for the legislative session, Wimberger and Cowles proposed a bill to allow the rulemaking process to go forward, but it did not gain any traction before the Assembly adjourned.

Evers has not yet taken action on the bill, but is expected to veto it. On Tuesday, Evers said that the failure to reach a compromise on the issue during the legislative session has left the thousands of Wisconsinites harmed by PFAS contamination without assistance as unusable water continues to come out of their faucets.

“There’s not one good reason that $125 million the Legislature and I both approved over 230 days ago to fight PFAS contaminants statewide should still be sitting in Madison today,” Evers said. “Ensuring Wisconsinites have access to clean, safe drinking water should never be a partisan issue, which is why Republicans should have released these critical investments months ago. Wisconsinites shouldn’t have to wait any longer than they already have.”

Evers proposed to the Joint Finance Committee a compromise proposal that will spend the $125 million on programs included in the Republican bill while removing the provisions that Democrats have objected to.

Under the proposal, $100 million of the funds would be spent on programs aimed at helping municipal water systems cover the cost of PFAS contamination while the remaining $25 million would be spent helping individual “innocent” landowners with property contaminated by PFAS.

Throughout the debate on the bill, Wimberger has insisted that the bill does not let polluters off the hook.

“While PFAS contamination was first identified in Marinette and Peshtigo, it’s become clear that PFAS affects Wisconsinites in all corners of our state,” Wimberger said in a statement last week. “Every person in Wisconsin deserves to have clean, safe drinking water and this bill provides pollution victims with the programs and protections they need to move forward with testing and remediation. While Governor Evers claims to have the same goal, he has yet to explain why he wants to keep pollution victims on the hook for pollution they didn’t cause.”

Clean water experts have said the language in the bill would allow polluters to have cleanup costs covered by the state and avoid DNR sanctions if they allow the agency to test for the chemicals on their property. A number of conservation organizations have called for Evers to veto the bill because of that provision.

“We cannot support the language that interest groups inserted into this bill to shield polluters from being held accountable for the messes they have caused,” Clean Wisconsin Water and Agriculture Program Director Sara Walling said. “The people of Marinette, Peshtigo, Campbell, Stella, and communities across the state deserve better. This should have been an easy, no-brainer bill to provide financial support to communities that need it now. Instead, it’s just another source of frustration and disappointment for Wisconsinites who have been waiting for help for far too long. Gov. Evers has every reason to veto this bill.”

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) says that if Wimberger were serious about actually trying to help innocent landowners and not shield polluters, he would have accepted a proposed amendment to do so.

“Republicans are very, very good, and for a long time have frankly gotten away with and benefited from just creating their own reality,” she says. “They’re just going to say words and not be challenged on whether they’re actually true or not. That’s a political habit they’ve fallen into. If Eric Wimberger is so sure he wrote it perfectly, then what’s the harm in just doing an amendment to clarify. If we’re on the same page about intent but there’s just a question about the language, then we literally have an entire legislative service agency that will help us with that. I think that’s the tell that it’s not genuine, because it would have been very simple.”

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