Gov. Evers Signs Bipartisan Bills to Unlock Over $125 Million to Fight PFAS Contamination Statewide

After months of negotiations and over two years of urging Republicans to release already-approved funding secured in the 2023-25 Biennial Budget, Gov. Evers signs bills to release $125 million in stalled investments to help clean up Wisconsin’s water

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today signed two bipartisan bills, Assembly Bill 130, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 200, and Assembly Bill 131, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 201, which, together, facilitate the release of the $125 million in stalled PFAS investments that have languished unspent in Madison for years despite the governor’s persistent demands for the funds to be released. The bills signed today are the result of years of advocacy by the governor, as well as months of negotiations between the Evers Administration and Republican lawmakers. In his 2026 legislative agenda, Gov. Evers cited PFAS legislation as a top priority for this year, urging lawmakers to make releasing $125 million to fight PFAS statewide “another bipartisan win for the people of Wisconsin” after 2025 yielded historic bipartisan accomplishments despite divided government.

“It’s not a pipe dream to think that Wisconsinites should be able to trust the water coming out of their tap, and I’ve always believed we could work across the aisle to get good things done to improve water quality across Wisconsin. Today, after seven years, I’m incredibly proud to be delivering on our promise to get something done on PFAS for communities across our state. It’s been a long time coming,” said Gov. Evers. “Since Day One, my administration has has been working to fight PFAS—one of the very first things I did as governor was declare 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water and create our PFAS Action Council. We know that whether it’s kids in the classroom, families at home, or our farmers and agricultural industries, Wisconsinites’ health and well-being depend on access to clean, safe water.

“For over 1,000 days, $125 million to fight PFAS statewide sat in Madison unspent because Republican lawmakers refused to release them. That changes today,” Gov. Evers continued. “This is a historic day for our state and the people of Wisconsin. It’s been a long road, but this will make a real difference for families living with the challenges of PFAS every day. I’ve never doubted we could get this done, and I’m darn proud we were able to deliver for Wisconsinites across our state.”

In January, as months-long negotiations continued, Gov. Evers shared that he was optimistic about reaching a final, bipartisan deal on PFAS yet this year. The negotiations resulted in a series of changes that were compiled into two substitute amendments that represented a good-faith effort toward reaching a deal, and Gov. Evers celebrated the passage of the final agreed-upon bills last month.

Together, these bills deliver on Gov. Evers’ promise to continue addressing PFAS contamination and ensure safe, clean water for all by securing protections for innocent landowners, investing $80 million of the $125 million in the PFAS Trust Fund to support local communities, investing $35 million of the $125 million in the PFAS Trust Fund for an expanded Well Compensation Grant Program, providing funding for emergency bottled water for private well owners in situations in which PFAS contamination in drinking water is discovered, and creating new opportunities for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to support communities in PFAS mitigation, among other important provisions.

This also comes as, last month, Gov. Evers approved new changes to bring the state’s current drinking water standards in line with federal limits for PFAS, reducing the state’s threshold for PFAS contamination from 70 parts per trillion (ppt) to a new enforceable standard of 4.0 part per trillion (ppt) for certain contaminants—an effort that will significantly improve drinking water standards and quality for Wisconsinites.

“The DNR’s staff will work diligently to develop new programs and adapt current programs to support Wisconsin’s communities and residents with addressing PFAS,” said DNR Secretary Karen Hyun. “We are committed to moving as quickly as possible to get the funding to those who need it most.”

OVERVIEW OF PROVISIONS WITHIN 2025 WISCONSIN ACT 200 & 2025 WISCONSIN ACT 201

Protection for Innocent Landowners
The bills signed into law today build upon the governor’s budget provisions protecting innocent landowners by amending the Spills Law to ensure farmers, landowners, certain business owners, and fire departments are not held responsible for PFAS contamination they did not cause.

Resources for Communities
The bills allocate about $80 million from the PFAS Trust Fund to a community grant program to assist local governments in combating and remediating PFAS contamination in their communities. Eligible activities include:

Sampling private wells;
Installing PFAS treatment at a public water system;
Creating a new public water system or connecting private well owners to a public water system in areas where there is PFAS contamination in the private water supply;
Sampling drinking water for PFAS in schools and child care centers;
Sampling for PFAS in high-capacity irrigation wells and soil on farmland;
Sampling for PFAS in biosolids and wastewater before it is spread on farmland;
Sampling for PFAS in groundwater and private water wells that are part of a monitoring plan at public solid waste landfills;
Investigating PFAS contamination to determine the most appropriate remedy; and
Conducting immediate and interim actions to mitigate, treat, or dispose of PFAS contamination in air, land, waters, or other natural resources in the state.

Also included is a dedicated grant program of $5.25 million to assist public airports and certain businesses with tackling PFAS contamination. Eligible remedial actions for this grant program include actions taken to control or minimize the discharge of PFAS from the site, as well as restoration activities to ensure the site no longer poses a threat to human health.

The bills provide $35 million for an expanded Well Compensation Grant Program to assist homeowners and businesses with private wells to ensure their drinking water is safe from PFAS. As Gov. Evers has proposed numerous times in the past, this proposal expands the eligibility limits for this program to allow more Wisconsinites to utilize the program and also allows non-community water supplies, schools, and childcare facilities to receive funding.

The bills also allocate funding for the provision of emergency bottled water for private well owners when PFAS contamination in drinking water is discovered, additional research activities related to PFAS, and support for the State Lab of Hygiene and other labs to assist in evaluating samples for PFAS.

Staffing resources at the DNR
The bills also create 10 new positions and appropriate $1.3 million from the general fund to existing DNR appropriations for the following purposes:

$118,900 for general program operations relating to conservation, the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, and management of the state’s fishery resources and the trapper education program;
$929,900 for the management and protection of the state’s water resources and for environmental quality and environmental management purposes; and
$261,600 for communications, customer services, aids administration, watershed management, and environmental analysis and sustainability.

Assembly Bill 130, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 200:

Appropriates funding from the PFAS trust fund and the general fund to support activities related to PFAS remediation and testing.

Assembly Bill 131, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 201:

Creates several new programs and requirements relating to per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON GOV. EVERS AND THE EVERS ADMINISTRATION’S EFFORTS TO FIGHT PFAS AND LEAD CONTAMINATION STATEWIDE

Gov. Evers declared 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water, and for the past seven years, has prioritized efforts to address PFAS contamination, proposing numerous comprehensive plans to protect Wisconsinites from PFAS in drinking, ground, and surface water. The Evers Administration enacted the first statewide standards for PFAS in surface and drinking water and has proposed groundwater standards multiple times despite Republican obstruction. Gov. Evers also secured a historic $125 million investment of state funding in the 2023-25 Biennial Budget to assist homeowners and communities in addressing PFAS contamination, but, as noted above, Republicans in the Legislature have blocked the DNR from accessing this funding for over two years.

Following multiple attempts to call on the Legislature to release this funding without delay, last session, Gov. Evers vetoed Senate Bill 312, a Republican bill claiming to release the PFAS Trust Fund and address contamination but in fact did not release one dollar from the PFAS Trust Fund and also included harmful “poison pill” provisions that would have removed authority the DNR currently possesses to hold PFAS polluters accountable and require those polluters to clean up their own spills, despite the governor communicating to bill authors that the bill would be vetoed unless they removed this “poison pill” provision.

Months later, in his 2025-27 Executive Budget, Gov. Evers once again recommended a comprehensive plan to address PFAS contamination across surface, drinking, and groundwater. Among other provisions, the governor’s proposal recommended allowing the full balance of the PFAS Trust Fund to be utilized by the DNR, with special attention made to protect innocent landowners, as well as the adoption of major policies in the CLEAR Act, including exempting DNR rulemaking relating to setting enforceable PFAS standards from the REINS Act. Unfortunately, Republican lawmakers removed the majority of the governor’s proposals to address PFAS contamination from the final budget.

Despite these obstructions, the Evers Administration has continuously sought bipartisan compromise to release funding from the PFAS Trust Fund as well as protect truly innocent landowners. In addition to the efforts noted above, additional resources outlining Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration’s efforts to urge Republican leaders to release the $125 million PFAS trust fund approved in the 2023-25 Biennial Budget are available below:

An online version of this release is available here.

Gov. Evers Signs Bipartisan Bills to Unlock Over $125 Million to Fight PFAS Contamination Statewide

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Current Weather

On Air Now

Country Music Panel