The Republican chair of the state Senate’s natural resources committee sounded optimistic Tuesday that the GOP-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers might find common ground in addressing Wisconsin’s ongoing battle with “forever chemicals” in the state’s ground and drinking water.
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PFAS: A selection of State Journal coverage of forever chemicals
A selection of State Journal coverage of forever chemicals.
The Department of Natural Resources combined information from drinking and surface water monitoring programs, health consumption advisories, and a database of contaminated sites into a single online map.
The Department of Natural Resources and Department of Health Services issued a health advisory Tuesday for several fish species in Castle Rock Lake and Lake Mohawksin.
The county has not provided data to support the claim but says it plans to expand the pilot to other contaminated parts of the airport.
The synthetic chemicals, which do not break down naturally, have been linked to health problems including low birth weight, cancer, and liver disease.
The sites both drain into Starkweather Creek, which flows into Lake Monona, where health officials have warned anglers to limit consumption of fish.
The Wisconsin Groundwater Coordinating Council’s annual report to the Legislature faults the natural resources policy board for failure to enact new groundwater standards recommended by state health experts.
The county is asking the courts to strike testing requirements in the permit for stormwater that drains from the airport into Lake Monona through Starkweather Creek, where PFAS contamination has made fish unsafe to eat.
The guidelines released Wednesday are thousands of times lower than Wisconsin’s first drinking water standards for the fluorinated compounds known as PFOA and PFOS, which took effect the same day.
Mikalsen warned the committee could suspend the standards if the department doesn’t lawfully implement them.
The suit claims the defendants knew since the early 1980s that the chemicals could damage the liver, kidneys and nervous system among other negative health effects.
There was no discussion of new or modified limits for about two dozen other substances, including Trichloroethylene, a common dry cleaning chemical known as TCE, and chromium-6, a carcinogen made famous by Erin Brockovich.
In the face of widespread public support, the Natural Resources Board voted 3-3 with one abstention Wednesday to reject rules to limit certain fluorinated compounds known as PFAS to a list of regulated chemicals in groundwater.
County Executive Joe Parisi announced Thursday that he would introduce a resolution authorizing the county to hire outside attorneys to pursue class-action litigation against manufacturers of fluorinated compounds known as PFAS.
Testing of groundwater under the base has revealed fluorinated compounds known as PFAS at levels thousands of times above proposed state standards, but the federally-guided process requires years of study, planning and approval.
