By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review
State officials have confirmed groundwater contamination has been detected at a city-owned property slated for redevelopment in Wausau, prompting a more exhaustive investigation.
The property, at 1300 Cleveland Ave., has demonstrated environmental contamination traced to decades of manufacturing operations, the subject of previous extensive reporting by this newspaper. City officials have long debated the fate of the property, which was once the site of a business investigated by the state for dumping hazardous waste.
Matt Thompson of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources confirmed that a PFAS groundwater investigation for the site will be necessary and could include off-site monitoring wells. The grassroots environmental group, Citizens for a Clean Wausau, reported the discovery on its website last week.
“Groundwater sampling from on-site monitoring wells has shown elevated levels of PFAS compounds at the Wausau Business Incubator site as well as detections in soil samples taken at the site,” Thompson told Wausau Pilot & Review. “The Department has requested that the City expand their investigation to fully define the extent of groundwater contamination associated with PFAS compounds and will work with the City and their environmental consultant to develop a work plan that addresses the request.”
Earlier this year Public Works Director Eric Lindman and Mayor Katie Rosenberg assured the city council that Wausau would apply for a cleanup grant fromthe Environmental Protection Agency to address contamination at the residential-zoned site. But so far, no application has been submitted and Lindman said he is not ready to apply for grant funds because the city would need to “have some idea what to propose for redevelopment” on the site first.
That statement is frustrating environmental advocates and the city council alder who represent residents in the adjacent neighborhood, where citizens have repeatedly asked Wausau for a thorough cleanup to protect public health. Residents and advocates have, for years, pushed back against efforts by the city to redevelop the property for industrial uses and fought to ensure residential zoning, which requires a higher level of standards for environmental cleanup.
Citizens for a Clean Wausau co-spokesperson Terry Kilian said residents have provided feedback on more than one occasion that they want no more industrialization there or in their neighborhood.
“Mr. Lindman’s assertions that he will not move forward on the EPA grant for clean up until the type of redevelopment is known is, in our opinion, without merit,” Kilian said. “This is zoned residential. . .It is a residential neighborhood and for the health and safety of the residents should be remediated to the highest standards. This EPA grant would allow that clean up.”
Environmental justice issue at the site
Dist. 3 Alder Tom Kilian, a founding member of Citizens for a Clean Wausau who lives down the street from the property, said he expects city officials to follow through with their earlier commitment to cleaning up the site in a way citizens expect.
“In terms of city government, this property has been tied to errors, irregularities, and funny business,” he told Wausau Pilot & Review. “Moving forward, the City’s actions with this property will be a clear — and very visible — litmus test of whether the City’s expressed policy commitment to citizen-driven government and Environmental Justice has substance, or is simply rhetoric. Currently, that commitment looks like it has more sizzle than steak.”
Both Terry and Tom Kilian pointed to the city’s environmental justice resolution as a blueprint for what they believe should happen moving forward. Mayor Rosenberg publicized on her campaign page that Wausau passed the first such resolution in the state. But that appears only connected to the effort to bring goats to a nearby park to eat native grasses in the summertime.
According to EPA data, nearly half of residents within one mile of the contaminated WAULECO site live below the poverty level. Multiple studies to show that low-wealth neighborhoods and those neighborhoods with higher percentages of people of color continue to face disproportionate burdens of industrial contamination. Considering the demographic and socioeconomic makeup of the neighborhood, CCW representatives say, there should be no other choice than to remediate to the highest standard with no new industrialization.
“Certainly the health of the residents of this neighborhood take precedence over goat matters when it comes to environmental justice and cleanup,” Terry Kilian said.
