Michelle Kussow, MK Lobbying
The Wisconsin Legislature has adjourned and will not be returning until January 2027 for the next Legislative Session. The most significant achievement this session relates to PFAS and is the culmination of years of work by the Water Quality Association, legislators, and Governor Evers.
Earlier this week, Governor Evers signed two bills into law, releasing $125 million allocated in the state budget for PFAS removal and spelling out how the money can be spent. These bills reflect years of strife between Republicans that control the Legislature and Democrat Governor Tony Evers on how to address PFAS contamination and remediations. Republicans wanted to implement a municipal grant program for testing and mitigation that would allow grants covering the cost of filtration devices and up to 2 replacement filters per homeowner. In addition, Republicans wanted to ensure that private landowners who unknowingly purchased contaminated property were not held responsible and also wanted to limit the DNR's ability to regulate PFAS.
As the end of the legislative session crept up, lawmakers and Governor Evers worked together to reach an agreement on the bills. The final bills signed into law included: protection for innocent landowners, $80 million to support municipalities, $35 million for an expanded Well Compensation Grant Program, additional DNR employees for enforcement and education, and using the remaining funding for emergency bottled water for private well owners.
The $80 million designated for communities allow municipalities to do the following: Sampling private wells; Installing PFAS treatment at a public water system; Creating a new public water system or connecting private well owners to a public water system in areas where there is PFAS contamination in the private water supply; Sampling drinking water for PFAS in schools, child care centers, on farmland and waste landfills; and mitigation to treat or dispose of the PFAS contamination.
The bills also provided an additional $35 million to expand the existing Well Compensation Grant Program, which assists homeowners and businesses with private wells. WQAW supports the Well Compensation Grant Program and the additional funding, which can be used for emergency bottled water, additional PFAS-related research activities, and support for the State Lab of Hygiene and other labs to assist in evaluating PFAS samples.
The passage of this bill coincides with rulemaking to increase drinking water standards for PFAS contamination, recently signed by Governor Evers. The new standards bring Wisconsin's 70 ppt threshold in line with federal PFAS limits of 4.0 ppt.
In other legislative action this session, WQAW supported “Filter First” legislation that would have required schools to develop drinking water management plans to include testing for PFAS and lead, and providing filtered bottle-filling stations. Money was approved as part of the state budget, but the Legislature failed to pass the bill detailing how the funding was spent, therefore the dollars lapse into the general fund.
WQAW also advocated for legislation that would have increased the current ratio of one journey or master worker overseeing one apprentice to allow for 2 apprentices to one journey/master plumber. WQAW supported this bill because of the low number of master and journeyman plumbers with restricted appliance licenses. However, the bill did not receive the votes needed this session and will need to be reintroduced in the next session.