Save Our water (S.O.H2O) has provided testimony to the Wisconsin State Senate’s Natural
Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs Committee in opposition to Senate Bill 128. The
bill would impose various restrictions on the DNR’s authority to address PFAS
contamination sites and would set up grant programs to distribute taxpayers’ money to
help impacted communities. The Bill is very similar to one passed in 2024 that Governor
Evers vetoed because of the same restrictions placed on the DNR.
In early February 2025, S.O.H2O met with State Representative Jeff Mursau to develop a
stand-alone bill that would legislatively establish a PFAS groundwater standard in
Wisconsin. After eight years of waiting for the normal rule making process to succeed, a
legislative approach seemed to be the only way to break the logjam. As the process
evolved, Rep. Mursau recommended that the groundwater standard be inserted into the
legislation that was to become SB 128.
Since the time SB 128 was introduced in the Senate and a companion bill in the State
Assembly, S.O.H2O worked throughout the spring and summer to develop an amendment
to the bill that would remove the most onerous aspects of the legislation impacting the
DNR’s authority and would insert a PFAS groundwater standard into the Bill. A draft
amendment has been produced and additional adjustments to the language are ongoing.
But the public hearing on SB 128 before the Natural Resources, Veteran and Military
Affairs Committee contains none of these changes. If it were to pass in the Senate and the
Assembly as written today, the Governor would surely veto it again. As noted in our
testimony, there will be no winners if this session of the legislature ends in another
stalemate with the Governor on PFAS. Some individuals and organizations endorsing the
Bill ignore both the harmful restrictions on the DNR and the political foolishness of
repeating the same failed attempt to craft one-sided partisan legislation.
S.O.H2O Board member Doug Oitzinger stated that by essentially introducing the same
legislation that was vetoed a year ago was the classic definition of insanity: doing the
same thing over and over again thinking there will be a different result. “The only way
forward is to work in a bipartisan manner that recognizes compromise is the only answer
to protect and help our communities dealing with PFAS contamination. PFAS is poison,
we need to get it out of our drinking water.” Said Oitzinger
