Here & Now

PFAS Cleanup, Standards and a State Lawsuit

Frederica Freyberg:

Declaring two companies that discharge cancer-causing chemicals into the air and water failed to report it between 2013 and 2016 and failed to clean it up, this week the Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Johnson Controls and Tyco. The DOJ seeks monetary penalties over PFAS contamination at the company’s firefighting foam test site in Marinette. PFAS are a group of chemicals that have been used for decades in products like non-stick cookware, fast food wrappers, stain-resistant sprays and certain types of firefighting foams. According to the complaint, Johnson Controls Incorporated and Tyco violated the state spills law when they failed to notify the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources of a PFAS discharge and failed to remediate PFAS contamination at and around the Fire Technology Center in Marinette, Wisconsin. For its part, Tyco released a statement to Wisconsin Public Radio saying, “We stand behind the years of work and considerable resources we have invested in investigating and remediating PFAS related to historic operations at our Fire Technology Center in Marinette.”

Jeff Lamont:

This is my home here, and I’m in the center of the plume. I have issues with my water. They were contaminated, this home is contaminated. These people are contaminated.

Frederica Freyberg:

In 2013, Tyco became aware of PFAS on their property, at their fire training facility where they used firefighting foams that contained the forever chemical.

Jeff Lamont:

Once they do their training, they hose all the foam down into the adjacent ditches and the ditches carry it into the lake.

Frederica Freyberg:

The man in that video from a report we did in 2019 is our next guest. Jeff Lamont is a retired hydrologist and personal expert in this PFAS contamination. He joins us now from just outside Marinette in the Town of Peshtigo. Jeff, thanks a lot for being here.

Jeff Lamont:

Thank you. And I appreciate the time.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you still have contaminated water where you are?

Jeff Lamont:

I do. Some of the highest contamination. I’m in the center of the plume. So my home has well over close to 140 or 150 parts per trillion.

Frederica Freyberg:

And so you’re drinking bottled water, of course?

Jeff Lamont:

Yes, for the last almost 4 1/2 years now.

Frederica Freyberg:

Were you part of last year’s settlement with Tyco to some 270 households?

Jeff Lamont:

Yes, I am part of that settlement. Although nothing has been paid out to date at this point.

Frederica Freyberg:

Was it validating for the families included to be part of that?

Jeff Lamont:

Uh, somewhat. Kind of a double-edged sword in that the amount of money that was appropriated and deemed reasonable by the judge, once you take away the attorneys’ fees, leaves about $12 million for those 200-plus homes and, you know, I got to meet one of the gentlemen that ended up a young man with testicular cancer in our area, and so, you know, I’m not sure how you put a value on that, $12 million for 270 households.

Frederica Freyberg:

And it’s supposed to presumably go to maybe replacing your well?

Jeff Lamont:

It could be used in that. They’re pushing new deep wells in this area, which was an option that was really never condoned or blessed by the Department of Natural Resources because you could just end up pulling the contamination deeper. So what do you do then?

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s your reaction, then, to the DOJ lawsuit against Tyco and Johnson Controls?

Jeff Lamont:

It’s very validating for us. I mean, we — I was one of three people that actually met with Attorney General Josh Kaul and Robert Bilott, one of the attorneys that was involved in the DuPont settlement in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Frederica Freyberg:

As we’ve reported, Tyco has done some remediation around the site and they mentioned that in their statement. Has that resulted in good clean-up there?

Jeff Lamont:

No, not yet. It was only what I would call two interim measures so far. So they put — they’re treating surface water from two ditches that leave the property, and one of them was only cleaning up 25% of the flow in that creek. And those concentrations were in the thousands parts per trillion and are discharging directly to Green Bay of Lake Michigan. And I think this spring they’re doing a small soil removal, and they started the construction of a long-term groundwater extraction system. But over a 50-year period, that only cleans up a portion of it. So this is a decades-long generational issue that will be with us for a long, long time.

Frederica Freyberg:

The federal infrastructure spending that is supposed to be sending tens of millions of dollars our way to try to clean this up across the state, I imagine it feels like a tiny drop in the bucket, but it’s something, right?

Jeff Lamont:

Oh, it is. And you know, some of those funds, we lobbied very heavily with Senator Baldwin’s office and have been very involved with them over the last four years about this. She came to visit our town. She actually faced some of the Tyco executives and more or less shamed them.

Frederica Freyberg:

With about a minute left, the DNR board adopted limits for PFAS in drinking and surface water last month but not for groundwater, citing a concern over the cost to remediate private wells. What’s your reaction to this?

Jeff Lamont:

Well, I actually testified at that meeting, and I participated in it for most of the day. Frankly, when they came back and started the votes, it was a three-ring circus. You had the secretary of the DNR yelling at the board members because the board members said they couldn’t believe the Department of Health’s numbers. And it just felt very scripted. Three of these people that were Governor Walker appointees, it seemed very obvious, had been involved with the lobbyists on this. And one of the gentlemen decided to abstain, he wouldn’t say why he abstained but that went to a 3-3 tie, and that’s why there was no standards set for groundwater, which a third of the people in Wisconsin rely on.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there, Jeff Lamont. Thanks very much, and good luck.

Jeff Lamont:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

As to federal infrastructure funding coming into Wisconsin, nearly $143 million will go toward water projects in 2022. The money will be made available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in loan programs to fund water infrastructure improvements. The funding includes a minimum of $95 million in grants to address PFAS with the findings that more than 50 communities in Wisconsin, like Peshtigo, have been found to have the forever chemicals in their drinking water.