Sen. Baldwin Secures Millions of Dollars for Safe Drinking Water Improvements in Wisconsin

Wisconsin communities struggling to deal with PFAS contamination will be getting more help from the federal government. Last week, Sen. Tammy Baldwin announced that she has helped secure more than $5 million for La Crosse and Rhinelander to address PFAS contamination in their drinking water supplies. Both communities detected high levels of PFAS “forever chemicals” in some municipal wells. The spending bill was signed by President Biden on Tuesday.

“Every Wisconsin family deserves safe drinking water, but too often, promises from lawmakers to address water contamination issues are empty,” said Clean Wisconsin Water Program Director Scott Laeser. “Senator Baldwin has delivered meaningful action for these Wisconsin communities. There is much more work to do, but this help is critical, especially in light of the state legislature’s repeated failure to provide resources for Wisconsin families struggling with these problems.”

Rhinelander will receive $1.6 million, and La Crosse will receive $3.7 million to build water infrastructure that can eliminate or reduce PFAS contamination. This comes on top of $150 million coming to Wisconsin over the next five years from the Infrastructure Act signed into law by Biden last fall.

Laeser says it’s a marked contrast to the largely feeble attempts by state lawmakers to tackle PFAS pollution. Just before Wisconsin’s legislature adjourned earlier this month, Senate Republicans rejected a vote on the CLEAR Act, a bill offering comprehensive PFAS protections for Wisconsinites. It included funding to help homeowners test private wells and required standards for both public and private water supplies.

“Leaders in the state legislature have repeatedly declined to act, leaving communities and private well owners to largely fend for themselves. We applaud our federal elected officials for stepping up to deliver help and will continue to advocate for overdue state action and resources,” says Laeser.

PFAS water quality standards recently approved by the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board will go into effect later this year as long as the Legislature does not block them, but those standards will not apply to the private wells that tens of thousands of rural families rely on for their drinking water.

More state projects getting federal help

The recently passed federal spending bill also includes $1 million to help the city of Monroe replace lead water service lines. And it includes $2 million to support an innovative Employ Milwaukee program that trains underrepresented populations in lead water pipe replacement. The program then places trainees with contractors working with Milwaukee Water Works to replace lead service lines in Milwaukee.

“This investment will help build a much-needed pipeline between those in need of work with good jobs in water infrastructure.  Moreover, having more contractors trained to do this work will lower the average cost of lead service line replacements over time, thereby speeding up the pace of replacements in Milwaukee,” says Clean Wisconsin Milwaukee Program Director Pamela Ritger de la Rosa.

Baldwin also secured $7 million in funding to support new buses in Milwaukee and transit improvements in the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee area.

“As of 2018, 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions produced in Milwaukee County came from the transportation sector, while local air pollution continues to disproportionately impact underserved communities of color. This is why a key recommendation of the Milwaukee City-County Climate and Equity Plan is to reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled 20 percent by 2030, in part by encouraging more people to use transit,” says Ritger de la Rosa. “This investment in transit will help achieve that goal while addressing the ever-present challenge of connecting workers with jobs through affordable, equitable and climate-friendly transportation options.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.