PFAS: the dangerous forever chemicals threatening our health

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of highly toxic human-made chemicals resistant to heat, water, and oil. For decades, PFAS have been used for industrial applications, in firefighting foam, and in consumer products. Often referred to as “forever chemicals” PFAS do not break down in the environment and have been linked to serious health effects.

Gov. Evers signed the 2023-25 state biennial budget in early 2023, which allocated $125 million to remediating PFAS contamination. Yet, the Joint Finance Committee has still not released the funds.

Wisconsinites impacted by PFAS need quick access to financial resources to help ensure the water coming out of their tap is safe to drink. It is critical this $125 million in funding gets to these communities.

In February, the governor took an additional step to get the funding out the door by submitting a new request to Joint Finance that includes important grant programs.

This is a common-sense proposal that Joint Finance members must support in order to ensure that we can get PFAS funding to impacted communities. Ask your legislator to release the funds! Members of the Joint Finance Committee must release these funds so that the money can get to people who need it.

For years, conservation voters have been advocating for action on PFAS as more and more communities have discovered these chemicals in their drinking water. We have advocated for PFAS remediation funding in the state budget for the last three years and have built public pressure to demand clean water standards.

With Gov. Evers' leadership, Wisconsin passed the first-ever statewide PFAS water standards in 2022. The PFAS administrative rules are a significant step toward making sure all Wisconsinites have access to clean, safe drinking water. With historic levels of federal funding from Pres. Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, communities that test and find high levels of PFAS in their water now have some resources to make their water safer to drink.

We will continue to fight alongside Wisconsinites who are dealing with contaminated water to ensure the PFAS money in the state budget gets distributed fairly and equitably.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) built an interactive tool with information about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) throughout Wisconsin. The PFAS Interactive Data Viewer combines publicly available information from multiple sources across the DNR’s website into one tool to allow users to more easily explore what is known about PFAS in Wisconsin.

Available information in the PFAS Interactive Data Viewer includes locations with known contamination, PFAS-related fish and game consumption advisories and waterbodies throughout Wisconsin sampled during targeted or routine monitoring.

Data from the DNR’s recent voluntary municipal drinking water system sampling program is also included. Through this program, almost 150 municipal water systems worked with the DNR to determine if PFAS is present in their drinking water. These systems provide water to more than 1.7 million people.