Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to hear business lobby lawsuit over spills law

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

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday announced it will hear a case over the state Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) ability to address PFAS contamination under the state’s decades-old spills law.

The spills law allows the DNR to hold polluters responsible for toxic contamination of the environment. The lawsuit, brought by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce WMC, the state’s largest business lobby, argues that the DNR needs to promulgate an administrative rule to update the chemicals it can apply the spills law to and therefore can’t apply the law to PFAS contamination.

Filed in 2021 in Waukesha County Circuit Court, the case has worked its way through the judicial system, with judges at the circuit and appellate court level agreeing with WMC at each level. But the judges in the majority on the District 2 Court of Appeals are among the most conservative in the state.

On Wednesday, with the case heading to the liberal-controlled Supreme Court, environmental groups celebrated.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this case, and we are confident the DNR’s efforts to keep Wisconsin families safe from PFAS contamination will ultimately be vindicated by the state’s highest court,” Midwest Environmental Advocates Staff Attorney Rob Lee said in a statement.

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