MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), submitted a new proposal this month to amend the state’s current drinking water standards to reflect the new federal standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminants. A copy of the scope statement outlining the proposed change is available here. This comes as Gov. Evers proclaimed August as Water Quality Month. A copy of the governor’s Water Quality Month proclamation is available here.
“Every Wisconsinite deserves access to clean, safe water that is free of lead, PFAS, and other harmful contaminants that are affecting our kids, families, and communities across our state,” said Gov. Evers. “With each day of delay in setting basic standards and getting meaningful investments out the door to protect our natural resources and get contaminants out of our water, the more costly these efforts will become. I urge the NRB to take up this change to bring us in line with federal regulation of these harmful chemicals as soon as possible as we continue working to ensure that every Wisconsinite has access to clean, safe drinking water straight from the tap, whether that water is coming from a municipal water system or a private well.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently set five new federal standards for drinking water, also known as Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), for PFAS contamination. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires Wisconsin to implement the federal PFAS MCL standards into state regulations in order to retain primary enforcement authority over the state’s public water systems. To begin the rulemaking process, the governor and DNR submitted a scope statement this month to amend the current drinking water standards to reflect the new federal MCLs for PFOA and PFOS and include water standards for three new PFAS compounds for which Wisconsin does not currently have standards.
Wisconsin currently does not have critical groundwater standards largely due to persistent obstruction by Republican lawmakers. In late 2020, the Natural Resources Board (NRB) approved a scope statement for the DNR to begin work on developing water quality criteria for PFAS. In 2022, after years of development by the DNR and advocacy by the governor and other clean water advocates, the NRB approved the first-ever enforceable water standards for surface and drinking water for two common PFAS compounds, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which became effective in August 2022. Unfortunately, Republicans on the NRB at the time blocked similar standards for groundwater, so the governor instructed the DNR to immediately restart work to again repropose and repromulgate these needed groundwater standards to ensure families who rely on private wells for their water would be better protected. Despite their work and the proven need for these protections, this rulemaking is currently stalled due to the Wisconsin State Legislature refusing to pass necessary legislation to enable the DNR to complete the rulemaking process.
ADDITIONAL EVERS ADMINISTRATION EFFORTS TO ADDRESS PFAS CONTAMINATION AND INVEST IN CLEAN, SAFE WATER STATEWIDE
Since taking office, identifying and remediating contamination in ground, surface, and drinking water has been a top priority for Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration. Gov. Evers declared 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water to highlight the need for meaningful investments to ensure Wisconsinites have clean, safe drinking water that is free of harmful contaminants like PFAS, lead, and nitrate. Additionally, Gov. Evers created the PFAS Action Council to develop a statewide PFAS Action Plan, which has led to key protections such as Wisconsin’s first enforceable statewide standards for PFAS in surface and drinking water.
The 2023-25 biennial budget that was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Evers in July 2023 included a $125 million investment to address and prevent PFAS contamination statewide—the first real and substantive Republican effort to address PFAS after years of inaction. Now, over 400 days later and despite a memo from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council that says they can, Republican legislators have refused to release the funding and have ignored repeated requests from Gov. Evers and the DNR to do so.
A more comprehensive timeline of the Republican-controlled JFC’s continued delays in releasing critical funding to address PFAS contamination is available here.
Supporting Private Well Owners
In August 2022, Gov. Evers announced a new $10 million grant program to support the replacement, reconstruction, treatment, or abandonment of contaminated private wells. Based on the state’s Well Compensation Grant Program and funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, the new program expanded eligibility beyond the state’s Well Compensation Program to include, among other items, PFAS remediation as an eligible expense, which was not previously covered by the Well Compensation Program despite proposals from Gov. Evers to expand this program’s eligibility in previous state budget proposals. Thanks to the expanded eligibility under this new program created by Gov. Evers, many previously ineligible individuals applied, including some Wisconsin small businesses with a non-community well, such as daycare centers, rural restaurants, and churches, among others.
As of August 2024, the DNR has awarded nearly 89 percent of the $10 million investment to 667 grantees statewide, including the treatment or replacement of 486 contaminated wells and 181 unused, abandoned wells that were properly filled and sealed. More information is available at the DNR’s Well Compensation Grant webpage and the Well Abandonment Grant webpage.
Additionally, the 2023-25 biennial budget signed by Gov. Evers provided $1 million in fiscal year 2023-24 for financial assistance for the state’s Well Compensation Grant Program.
Finally, the most recent request submitted to the Republican-controlled JFC by the DNR and the governor to allocate the $125 million from the PFAS Trust Fund created in the 2023-25 budget includes a $25 million investment to assist homeowners and other entities with private wells contaminated with PFAS. As outlined above, JFC can release the $125 million at any time, and Gov. Evers continues to urge them to do so without any further delay.
Lead Service Line Replacement
Earlier this month, Gov. Evers and the DNR announced a new grant program that will provide municipal community public water systems with the funds to conduct community outreach efforts in support of ongoing or upcoming lead service line replacement projects.
These grant funds, provided by the Biden-Harris Administration under the BIL, will help bolster outreach efforts by encouraging collaboration between municipal systems and locally trusted messengers, such as community-based organizations, to provide consistent, clear communication and public education with residents, property owners, consumers, and community leaders throughout the project planning and implementation. The Lead Service Line Replacement Community Outreach Grant will begin accepting applications on Aug. 29, 2024. Additionally, using funding from the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program and supplemented by the BIL, in October 2023, Gov. Evers announced a more than $402 million investment to support drinking water improvement projects in 106 municipalities across the state. This investment included more than $30 million for the city of Milwaukee, nearly $6 million for the city of Wausau, and over $72 million in total to replace lead service lines.
Now, Wisconsin is one of four states leading the renewed effort for replacement by participating in the Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators Program, and in May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wisconsin would receive more than $83 million in additional funding to help the state identify and replace lead service lines under the BIL. In total, Wisconsin will receive more than $900 million in additional funding from the BIL to support the state’s environmental loan programs.
According to a 2023 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, more than 37,000 lead service lines have been replaced or turned off since 2018, which is more lines replaced or turned off in just five years than in the previous two decades.
Farmer and Producer-Led Initiatives
In April, Gov. Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), announced that 18 projects are receiving grant funding for the 2024 Commercial Nitrogen Optimization Pilot Program (NOPP). These grants aim to refine and enhance the understanding of new methods that optimize commercial nitrogen applied to agricultural fields, helping to protect vital soil and water resources.
Funding for the NOPP and the cover crop insurance premium rebate program, which assists farmers with rebates of $5 per acre of a cover crop planted for crop insurance premiums paid on those acres, was announced in August 2022. These programs were created under 2021 Wisconsin Act 223, legislation put forth by the bipartisan Water Quality Task Force and signed into law by Gov. Evers in April 2022. Building on these efforts to conserve and protect Wisconsin’s soil and water resources, the 2023-25 Biennial Budget signed by Gov. Evers provided $1.8 million in each year on a one-time basis to continue the NOPP and cover crop insurance program.
Additionally, the governor has also allocated millions of dollars to farmers and producers to implement runoff management practices and protect watersheds across the state. The 2021-23 biennial budget signed by Gov. Evers increased the statutory cap on annual awards for the Producer-Led Watershed Protection grant program to $1 million and allocated an additional $500,000 for the program. The final 2023-25 biennial budget signed by Gov. Evers provided an additional one-time investment of $500,000 to support the program. These grants help groups of farmers work collaboratively to reduce and prevent runoff that causes nonpoint source water pollution.
Underserved Drinking Water System Grant Program
This month, DNR announced the Underserved Drinking Water System Grant Program, which was created to help other-than-municipal community (OTM) and nonprofit non-transient non-community (NN) public water systems provide safe water in Wisconsin by providing funding for systems to address active violations and action level exceedances.
According to the DNR, OTM public water systems are not owned by a government or municipality and serve groups of 25 or more year-round residents. OTMs can include mobile home parks, apartment buildings, and condominium associations that are not on city or municipal water. NN public water systems are nonresidential and regularly serve groups of at least 25 of the same people over six months of the year. NNs can include schools and daycare centers, among others, that are not on city or municipal water.
This program is funded through the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016, and this summer, DNR received a financial assistance agreement from the EPA to issue subawards to help underserved communities that are served by public water systems that violate or exceed a requirement of the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations.
2023-25 Biennial Budget Investments for Safe, Clean Drinking Water
In addition to $125 million to address and prevent PFAS contamination statewide and other investments as detailed above, the final 2023-25 biennial budget signed by Gov. Evers also provided:
- $7.5 million in fiscal year 2023-24 for contaminated sediment removal from sites in the Great Lakes or its tributaries that are on Wisconsin’s impaired waters list to continue protecting this resource;
- $4 million for the Urban Nonpoint and Municipal Flood Control Program;
- $6.5 million for grants under the Targeted Runoff Management Program;
- $7 million for grants to counties for the implementation of land and water resource management plans; and
- $4 million for the repair, reconstruction, and removal of dams.
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