Here & Now

Lee Donahue on Living Amid PFAS Pollution on French Island

Frederica Freyberg:

Town of Campbell residents on French Island this week filed a $42 million lawsuit against the neighboring city of La Crosse for contamination from the cancer-causing forever chemicals, or PFAS. Red dots on this DNR map show areas where water samples on the island exceeded hazard levels. The agency has named the city of La Crosse as the responsible party for the widespread contamination related to firefighting foam that was used for decades at the city’s airport. PFAS were first discovered in La Crosse municipal wells and then in private wells. More than 2,000 residents there are receiving bottled water from the DNR as a result. For an update on the Town of Campbell’s water woes, we turn to Lee Donahue, a member of the town’s board of supervisors. And thanks very much for being here.

Lee Donahue:

Yes. Thanks for inviting me.

Frederica Freyberg:

How long have residents been using bottled water and what kind of hardship is that?

Lee Donahue:

So residents have been using bottled water that has been paid for by the DNR since spring of 2021. We were first notified that there was a possibility that there was contamination in our water in October of 2020, so we’re coming up on three years. And the hardship is imagine trying to move a 5-gallon jug of water. They’re unwieldy, they’re heavy. You have to find a place that you can store them that is climate controlled. You can’t leave them in your garage or your front porch or back porch or your breezeway because they will freeze during the wintertime. So it’s a tremendous hardship for people to find places to store them and to be able to just heft them around and deal with the physicality of using large bottles of water.

Frederica Freyberg:

How long before the DNR started supplying bottled water was PFAS seeping into the wells?

Lee Donahue:

Well, truthfully, the PFAS could have been seeping into the wells as early as 1970. That is the period of time that the city of La Crosse airport was using the AFFF, and it’s likely that it’s been there for 40 to 50 years. We really don’t know. It was only discovered first in 2014 in one of the city wells that’s co-located on the island and then it was found in a second well in 2016 and then we were notified in 2020.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is it like for people living there to have this dangerous contamination part of their everyday lives?

Lee Donahue:

You change everything that you do, from when you wake up in the morning and you brush your teeth with a little bottle of water at your sink. You can’t grow foods that you eat in the soil. You can’t use your sprinkler to water foods that you would grow in your backyard. I have a raspberry patch that’s probably 50 feet long and 10 feet wide. I haven’t been able to eat a raspberry for years. It’s hard. It changes everything that you do.

Frederica Freyberg:

How will the $402 million directed from the governor and the $125 million in the state budget for PFAS mitigation help address the problem in the Town of Campbell?

Lee Donahue:

Well, a lot of that really depends on Senate Bill 312 and how that bill is structured to be able to help small communities that are on private wells access that PFAS trust fund. It’s unclear whether that bill will pass in its current form. I know it’s already been amended once and now there’s discussion about further amendments that it might come to the floor next week.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do people want to stay on French Island or are people hesitant to locate there?

Lee Donahue:

Well, I would say if it wasn’t the water problem, it’s a glorious place to live. We’re a small island. We have our own fire department and police department and we’re hugged by two rivers. It’s beautiful. It’s lovely. It’s a small-town community, but when you can’t drink the water out of your tap and you have to maneuver these very heavy large bottles so that you have a safe alternative source, it’s a struggle for many people and many people have chosen to move elsewhere.

Frederica Freyberg:

What would be your advice to others in the state suffering the same kind of thing?

Lee Donahue:

Well, I think the most important thing is to make certain that the water you are drinking is in fact safe.

Frederica Freyberg:

Supervisor Lee Donahue, thanks very much and good luck with this.

Lee Donahue:

Thank you.