'It would mean a good night's sleep': Private well owners ask for 'forever chemical' standards for groundwater

Laura Schulte
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – After the Natural Resources Board failed to advance standards for toxic "forever chemicals" in groundwater earlier this year, Peshtigo resident Cindy Boyle felt as if her community was being left unprotected by the state because it gets its drinking water from private wells. 

Boyle, who serves as the chairwoman for the Town of Peshtigo in northeastern Wisconsin, said standards for PFAS in groundwater should be essential for state regulators. Peshtigo and nearby Marinette are home to the most extensive PFAS contamination in Wisconsin, stemming from the testing of firefighting foam containing the compounds outdoors for years until the practice was halted in 2017. 

"(Having standards) would mean we don't have to live in constant fear that chemicals are coming into our wells, that we have the law behind our efforts to protect ourselves," she said. "It would mean a good night's sleep. And recourse to hold the responsible party responsible." 

Nearly 1 million Wisconsin residents rely on groundwater from private wells for their drinking water.

Boyle is hoping to see the state restart the process to set standards for PFAS in groundwater soon, especially after a petition filed by The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and Save Our Water, or S.O. H2O. 

Though state Department of Natural Resources Secretary Preston Cole said in June that the agency could take up groundwater regulations again, no action has yet been taken

The petition is asking the DNR to regulate PFOA and PFOS — two of the most well-researched PFAS compounds — as well as PFBS and GenX in groundwater. 

More:What the new federal health limits on 'forever chemicals' mean for Wisconsin

The groups said that members of the League and S.O.H2O — in addition to Wisconsinites at large — are facing severe health risks because of exposure to high levels of PFAS in groundwater. 

"If concentrations are not minimized through numerical groundwater quality standards, at-risk communities will continue to suffer and bear the health and monetary cost of this environmental burden," the petition said. 

Doug Oitzinger, a member of S.O.H2O and a city council member in Marinette, said simply setting a standard will allow the state to start testing for contamination and then allow programs to develop to help people who are found to have contamination in their private wells. 

"You're informing residents if they're drinking poison, then people can get funding to do something about it. Most people simply wouldn't be able to afford treatment systems or buy bottled water month after month," he said. 

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 the 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 as well as high blood pressure. The chemicals enter the human body largely through drinking water.

The compounds have been found in water across the state, and in places such as Peshtigo and the Town of Campbell near La Crosse, which rely on groundwater to supply private wells. 

More:Lawmakers let 'forever chemical' surface, drinking water standards go into effect

'It's necessary, but not sufficient'

After the measure failed to pass the Natural Resources Board, which sets policy for the DNR, the scope statement for the groundwater rule expired in early March, forcing the DNR to abandon the rule. Meanwhile, the standards for drinking and surface waters were passed along to the Legislature and approved in June.

The strict process governing administrative rules sets forward tight timelines, spanning only three years. In some cases, the timeline has caused the DNR to abandon rules because the tight timeline can't be met during research phases. 

Tony Wilkin Gibart of Midwest Environmental Advocates, the organization representing the League and S.O.H2O in the petition, said that the NRB's judgment shouldn't be the final say when it comes to whether PFAS are listed as a contaminant in groundwater. 

"The Natural Resources Board does not have blanket discretion or free rein to not protect Wisconsin's groundwater," he said. 

Moving the standards forward shouldn't take much additional work, Wilkin Gibart said, thanks to the foundation laid during the three years the DNR and the Department of Health Services worked on the rules. 

"Much of the work has already been done," he said. 

More: 'Forever chemicals' linked to high blood pressure in women, new study shows

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released updated health advisory limits for PFAS, essentially suggesting that no levels of PFOA or PFOS are safe for humans to consume. 

"The state can and should rely on information that the EPA has considered and analyzed to start this process," Wilkin Gibart said. 

Boyle said that without standards families like hers and many others in the Peshtigo community are being left to understand the issues of PFAS in their water by themselves, and then left to figure out solutions on their own as well. If a standard existed, it might be easier to get access to solutions for clean water aside from living on bottled water indefinitely

"Until we have standards for groundwater, we are absolutely being discriminated against," she said. "Why is one portion of the population protected and the rest left on their own?" 

Oitzinger said that process governing how rules for pollution are set is an issue that needs to be addressed so that state agencies can address issues like toxic contamination faster than in three years. 

"You know, we're in our fifth year of fighting this (in Marinette and Peshtigo). People found out their wells were poisoned in 2017, and here we are in 2022 and there is still no regulation of the poison that is in their wells," he said. "Don't tell me that's good government, tell me that is environmental protection, that that is human health protection. It's not." 

Oitzinger said he's worried that the petition could fall on deaf ears but hopes that it instead inspires immediate action.

"We're doing the only thing that it seems we can do — restarting the process," he said. "It's necessary, but not sufficient. We've got to do something that can speed this up." 

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