Read the full article by Jason Collins (Barn Raiser)
“For years, the 686 residents in and around the small town of Stella, in Oneida County, Wisconsin, have been fighting for safe drinking water after discovering high levels of PFAS contamination in private wells. What was once considered routine—drinking water from one’s own well—has become a source of fear, as everyone relies on a well.
Kitchen taps go unused; bottled water stacks up in homes. Residents are left with questions about the future of water access, property values, and their long-term health. The biggest question residents have been asking is how this happened, whether it could have been prevented. Local communities have pushed back at public meetings and demanded answers and regular well-testing from officials. Other residents like Kristen Hanneman have turned to civic action to better educate neighbors about PFAS, while Tom LaDue joined a statewide PFAS coalition.
The start of a nightmare
William Casey Crump, long-time resident, landowner and chairperson of the Stella town board, thinks back on those first days when state testing revealed the contamination.
‘When it first came out that we had such high levels of PFAS chemicals, the highest levels in the country, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had a public meeting and briefed us on a bunch of stuff.’ He adds, ‘At that time, there were a whole lot of unknowns, and one of the biggest concerns was what do we do?'”…