Wausau City Council Hears Presentation on PFAS

Thursday, March 16th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

(Mike Leischner, WSAU) -The Wausau City Council heard a presentation from the Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday regarding who could be held responsible for the PFAS contamination in the city's drinking water supply.

According to Mike Leischner with WSAU, Field Operations Director Trevor Noble says that's not an easy question to answer. "There may not be just one source or one responsible party in some of our cases. And that can be very difficult to sort through on multiple levels. It's much more difficult identifying a single source and a single RP in these PFAS situations."

Nobel says once the department determines a responsible party they have several options to clean up the mess. "It could be digging out the contamination. It could be injecting something in the ground to help biological activity break those compounds down faster. It could be multiple things put into place like the pump and treat system."

Noble gave his presentation alongside his colleague at the DNR Steve Elmore, they represent two of several teams that are working on the issue of PFAS. "My team only works in one lane or one realm. We have other programs, but we all work very closely together."

Mayor Katie Rosenberg has said that so far no one has been able to identify a responsible party or parties for the contamination- all six of the city's drinking water wells have elevated levels of the so-called forever chemicals, which are linked to multiple health issues. Several other municipalities across the region and state are also battling the chemicals from Rhinleander to Eau Claire and the La Crosse area.

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