Tyco, Johnson Controls Agree to $10 Million PFAS Settlement

An aerial photo of Tyco’s Fire Training Center in Marinette. Photo courtesy of Johnson Controls International

Gov. Tony Evers announced the state’s first settlement with a Marinette manufacturer of firefighting foam over alleged violations of the state’s spills law for failing to report PFAS contamination.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said it’s one of the most significant environmental resolutions in the state’s history, as well as the largest settlement on a case handled exclusively by the state.

In March 2022, the Wisconsin Department of Justice sued Johnson Controls International, or JCI, and its subsidiary Tyco Fire Products in Marinette County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit alleges Tyco failed to immediately notify the state of PFAS contamination around its fire training facility in the city of Marinette when it was first discovered through sampling in 2013. The company didn’t alert the state about release of the chemicals until four years later.

Under the settlement, Tyco must invest $10 million into the state’s PFAS trust fund to help clean up the chemicals. The company must also provide clean water to residents facing PFAS pollution of private wells, including newer deep wells, for the next 20 years.

“While today is an important victory, we know our work cannot stop,” Evers said in a statement. “For the folks in Marinette, this day has been a long time coming, but we know that for so many families and communities across our state, dealing with PFAS pollution is still a daily reality.”

In April, the governor signed a pair of bills to release around $133 million from the PFAS trust fund to address contamination. Evers noted it’s not the state’s only case against Tyco.

The state has also sued JCI/Tyco and other companies to recover costs from cleaning up PFAS contamination. The case has been moved to U.S. District Court in South Carolina as part of multidistrict litigation involving thousands of cases over PFAS contamination from firefighting foam.

A Tyco spokesperson said it’s pleased to have reached an agreement with the state, saying that doing what is best for its neighbors and environment is a top priority.

“Since 2017, we have invested significantly in long-term solutions including providing deep wells for clean, sustainable drinking water for our neighbors,” a Tyco spokeperson said in a statement. “In addition, our state-of-the-art groundwater extraction and treatment system has already treated hundreds of millions of gallons of water and will continue to return clean, safe water to the environment.”

Under the settlement being filed Thursday, Tyco must establish cleanup goals and continue work to restore the environment in soil, groundwater and surface water. It must also continue monitoring and reporting on groundwater and surface water quality in the area.

In an interview with WPR, Kaul said the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will decide how to use the funds with approval from a legislative committee. He said it’s critical those funds should go to clean up contamination in the Marinette area.

“It’s my hope that there will be input from from community members as DNR assesses how it’s moving forward,” Kaul said. “I also hope the funds are allocated quickly because you know this community has waited a long time.”

Residents in Marinette and the town of Peshtigo have struggled for years with PFAS contamination of private wells stemming from Tyco’s facility. Sampling shows 236 of 776 wells tested by Tyco or the DNR have PFAS levels beyond state health advisory levels for groundwater.

Doug Oitzinger, a Marinette resident with the nonprofit group Save Our Water, called the settlement “underwhelming.”

“Maybe our expectations were higher than they should have been, but a $10 million settlement doesn’t seem like a lot of money for all the contamination,” Oitzinger said.

He noted that the settlement doesn’t require any health studies in the area, which Kaul said was not one of the remedies available with the alleged violations.

Under the deal, the DNR will not require Tyco to further investigate or clean up PFAS in an expanded site investigation area around the company’s facility. The company and regulators have long disputed whether Tyco is responsible for contamination there.

Kaul said their goal was to get as widespread and substantial relief as possible. The settlement still has to be approved by a Brown County judge.

From the 1960s until 2017, Tyco and its predecessor Ansul Company had used a type of foam that contained PFAS at its 380-acre fire technology center in Marinette.

Sampling showed levels of PFOA, one of the most widely studied PFAS chemicals, as high as 254,000 parts per trillion in groundwater at the site. That’s tens of thousands of times higher than federal drinking water limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration. President Donald Trump’s EPA is defending those standards for PFOA and PFOS.

Tyco has said it’s already spent more than $100 million to clean up the chemicals and provide residents with a long-term source of safe drinking water.

As of October, Tyco said they either installed or contracted to install deep wells to secure safe water for more than 85 percent of 169 residents living nearby its facility who had contaminated wells.

As of March, more than 450 million gallons have been treated by Tyco’s groundwater extraction system since 2022. The system has significantly reduced PFAS levels discharged to a nearby ditch or creek, but it has not eliminated the chemicals in groundwater.

In 2024, Tyco settled a lawsuit filed by public water systems for $750 million. In 2021, the company also reached a $17.5 million settlement with Peshtigo residents, covering roughly 270 homes in the area facing contamination.

Wisconsin reaches $10M settlement with Tyco, Johnson Controls over PFAS contamination was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.