Here & Now

Jeff Lamont on Wisconsin's PFAS Settlement with Tyco Fire

Frederica Freyberg:
Tyco Fire Products reached a settlement this month with the state of Wisconsin to clean up PFAS contamination in Marinette County. Tyco manufactured firefighting foam that spread the forever chemicals in soil and water. The settlement requires Tyco to put $10 million into Wisconsin’s PFAS Trust Fund for future cleanup, provide clean water in the Marinette area, including deep drinking water wells in a prescribed area for 20 years. Monitor and report water quality within the 35 square miles that includes parts of the city of Marinette and the town of Peshtigo and requires Tyco to remediate and restore the environment in soil, groundwater and surface water. Another lawsuit against the company and others is ongoing. For reaction to the PFAS settlement, we turn to Jeff Lamont, a resident in Marinette and a retired hydrologist. And Jeff, thanks very much for being here.

Jeff Lamont:
You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how long in coming was this settlement?

Jeff Lamont:
They found PFAS on their fire training facility three and a half to four years before they reported it to DNR, which violated the spills law. And they let the community drink this contaminated water for four years before reporting it. So, yeah, we’re seven years and we were first informed of the contamination in November of 2017. So it’s almost been ten years.

Frederica Freyberg:
But in your mind, this settlement barely touches the problem?

Jeff Lamont:
Yes. So the settlements, we’re not happy at all about because what it did, essentially it said there was the initial investigation area and then there was an expanded investigation area. And for ten years the DNR had fought with Tyco about the responsibility beyond this essential first area that was investigated. The contamination was the same. I mean, we’re talking in places where it’s neighbors right across the street. Well, we’re going to take care of you on this side of the street. But the other side of the street, that’s not our contamination. And this lawsuit limited their liability to just the initial investigation area and not the expanded investigation area or the 3,000 acres of contaminated biosolids that was spread in Marinette County.

Frederica Freyberg:
But isn’t the settlement and $125 million in state funding and potential of an ongoing lawsuit starting point better than nothing?

Jeff Lamont:
It is better than nothing. But if you want to put that in into perspective, Tyco has set aside $180 million just for this site. So, I mean, we’re just one of many, you know, dozens, if not hundreds in the state that are impacted. So it really does not go very far. And the deep wells Tyco has been putting in approximately $100,000 apiece. So if you look at another $10 million, that might address another 100 wells in the community beyond the initial investigation area that are still contaminated with their PFAS.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you have experience in large scale cleanups with the EPA. What, in your experience, should be happening?

Jeff Lamont:
Well, you know, I try to let the citizens of our community know that these are very, very long, drawn out processes. I mean, a lot of the Superfund sites that I worked on had been in the gears for ten, 15, 20, sometimes 30 years before the remediation actually went into place or started. And often these remedial efforts can take multiple years. The Waukegan Harbor cleanup I did, we were there for 7 or 8 years from once we started the project.

Frederica Freyberg:
Can PFAS, these forever chemicals, can they be removed, remediated, make people safe?

Jeff Lamont:
They can be. There’s a number of technologies and as. And as PFAS has become such a huge problem countrywide, a lot of companies have started to invest a lot of money in different techniques to clean up. You know, Tyco chose, in my opinion, a very ineffective solution. They did a pump and treat system to remove shallow groundwater and treat it with granular activated carbon. And, and, and resins. And it can remove that but there are more practical ways. They’re more expensive. They’re reactive barrier walls are one that is being used a lot these days on Air Force bases and in different communities across the country. But Tyco chose, in my opinion, a very ineffective method to address this.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you hold out hope that this will be adequately remediated in Wisconsin?

Jeff Lamont:
Not a lot without significant, you know, outpour and outcry from the public. It’s just — it’s such a costly endeavor that unless there’s a responsible party like we have Tyco/Johnson Controls, this is going to fall on the taxpayer. And, you know, there’s only so much resources in the state budgets for this kind of thing. And like we talked about earlier, $135 million is kind of a drop in the bucket, really, but it is a starting point. So I should be more optimistic, I guess, for that.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Well, we will leave it on that note. Jeff Lamont, thanks so much.

Jeff Lamont:
Thank you so much.