Gov. Tony Evers said Tuesday he will veto a bill aimed at cleaning up toxic PFAS chemicals in scores of Wisconsin communities but urged legislators to take up his counter-offer, which removes a provision he considers pro-polluter.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been used for years in a range of products from firefighting foams to non-stick pans and made their way into the groundwater of dozens of Wisconsin communities, including Madison.
Legislators sent Evers a bill last week that would lay out a blueprint for how to spend $125 million previously approved by lawmakers in last year’s budget to address PFAS. The Legislature’s budget writing committee would still need to approve the funding, but the bill would create a series of grant programs for landowners and local governments to help test for PFAS and respond to contamination.
But language in the bill largely prevents the state Department of Natural Resources from taking enforcement action against participants in one of the programs, targeted at “innocent landowners.” Republicans argued this was needed to ensure farmers and other landowners weren’t held responsible for pollution on their land they didn’t cause.
Evers and scores of environmental groups, however, have said that this is tantamount to giving those responsible for PFAS contamination across the state a free pass. In a letter released Wednesday, Evers called it a “poison pill” and confirmed that he would veto the measure.
Instead, the governor has pushed lawmakers to take up his own proposal for spending the money. On Tuesday, Evers sent the Joint Finance Committee a new plan to release the $125 million that mirrors the bill Republicans passed, minus the provision that deals with enforcement action and the innocent landowner program.
“Wisconsinites should not have to wait any longer than they already have,” Evers wrote in a letter to the two GOP chairmen of Joint Finance, Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green. “Partisan politics should not stand in the way of addressing PFAS contamination in communities across our state.”
Evers previously submitted a separate plan to use the $125 million last year but the plan has yet to be considered by the committee.
In a statement, Marklein and Born called on Evers to sign the bill.
“Legislative Republicans prioritized setting aside $125 million in the budget for mitigating and preventing PFAS contamination in our state — Senate Bill 312 would create the framework for the program," the lawmakers said. "Governor Evers should sign it instead of holding up these funds to give the DNR authority to penalize innocent landowners.”
One of the bill's authors, Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, said in a statement that Evers' plan doesn't include other items in the bill and would turn the PFAS money "into a slush fund that won’t solve the problems on the ground."
Environmental groups in recent days have urged Evers to veto the legislation, with Clean Wisconsin Water and Agriculture Program Director Sara Walling calling it “another source of frustration and disappointment for Wisconsinites who have been waiting for help for far too long.”
But some affected communities have asked Evers to reverse course and sign the bill. In Peshtigo, nearby Tyco Fire Products had for decades tested firefighting foam that contained PFAS. The chemical-laden foam got into the town’s soil and washed down the sewer.
Town of Peshtigo Chairman Jennifer Friday called the bill the “next logical step” toward releasing the money to fight PFAS.
“We all want clean water and, in the case of PFAS contamination, that will only happen if we are open-minded with a willingness to work with the ‘other side,’ both of which are often lacking with activists,” Friday wrote in a letter dated Friday.
