Wisconsin lawmakers offer only empty promises on PFAS “forever chemicals”

It has been a long couple of years for residents of French Island. If they want to drink water, it has to come from a bottle, not the tap, because of contamination from PFAS chemicals. They can’t even water their garden, unless they have a rain barrel. For years, lawmakers have failed Campbell residents and those in other parts of Wisconsin, where PFAS contamination is rampant. There must have been some relief then when they learned that the Joint Finance Committee of the Wisconsin Legislature not only approved funding to address PFAS contamination, but voted to set aside more money than Gov. Tony Evers had called for in his budget proposal.  That joy was short-lived though when we learned that Republicans, who control the committee that approved the funding, have no plans for how it should be spent. In fact, the money may never be spent to clean up the contamination. It would require future legislation to actually get the money to communities, like French Island. The legislation they passed doesn’t even require any more testing for chemicals as the governor proposed. Setting money aside to solve a problem without coming up with a specific plan for solving it does nothing to help the people on French Island, who once again have been let down by their political leaders.