Read the full article by Laura Schulte (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

“TOWN OF CAMPBELL – Wisconsin is seeking reimbursement of the nearly $1 billion spent addressing ‘forever chemicals’ across communities, including the remediation of water and soil and the reimbursement of money spent on providing bottled water and filters. 

Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul announced a lawsuit against a host of companies they said knew about the harmful impacts of PFAS but did not inform the public. 

‘Republicans and elected leaders in this state have long known about the problems facing water quality in communities in every corner of the state, including many of their own, and have sided with polluters by doing next to nothing — by allowing polluters to soil, spoil our state’s natural resources and avoid basic safety standards and responsibility and accountability for their actions,’ Evers said.

Evers, a first-term Democrat who faces a tough reelection fight in the fall, also singled out the Natural Resources Board, which sets policy for the Department of Natural Resources and refused to pass standards for PFAS in groundwater, on which nearly 1 million Wisconsin households rely on for their drinking water. 

‘Relying on the Culligan man for clean drinking water is not the solution. It’s a Band-Aid at best,’ he said. ‘And we must do more to protect the people of our state, period.’ 

Among the 18 companies named in the lawsuit is Tyco Fire Products, located in Marinette. The state’s worst PFAS contamination has stemmed from that facility, where the company tested fire fighting foam containing PFAS outdoors from 1962 until ending the practice in 2017. The foam ended up on the soil surrounding the company’s fire training center, as well as in the Marinette sewer system when the foam was washed into drains. 

In March, the Department of Justice also filed a lawsuit against Tyco, formerly known as Ansul Company.

Also included in the lawsuit are 3M, DuPont, Chemours, Buckeye Fire Equipment, Kidde-Fenwal, Chemguard, Chemdesign Products and a number of other companies across the country. 

The complaint alleges that the companies listed knew about the potential harm that PFAS could cause, and even took precautions to protect their employees but not the public at large.” …