Wausau Pilot & Review
The City of Wausau will receive more than $17 million in state funding to reduce contaminants, including PFAS chemicals, in drinking water, Gov. Tony Evers’ office and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced earlier this week.
The financial assistance is being provided under Emerging Contaminant funding. Of the $17 million, $5.1 million is principal forgiveness and the remaining $12.3 million will be available at subsidized interest rate, the press release issued by the governor’s office said.
“Since Day One, my administration has been working to ensure that every Wisconsinite, no matter their ZIP code, has access to clean, healthy, and safe drinking water and can trust the water coming from their tap,” Evers said.
Wausau is also receiving over $5.8 million in lead service line replacement funding, the statement said. Of this, more than $3.6 million will be principal forgiveness and the rest coming through a loan with a 0.25 percent interest rate.
The city is among the 106 municipalities that are getting the financial assistance through the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program (SDWLP) to improve drinking water quality. The overall allocated amount is $402 million.
The city’s drinking water quality has been in the spotlight ever since PFAS was detected in Wausau’s drinking water wells after the city voluntarily tested them in early 2022. The
But the city did not plan for PFAS removal when it was designing a new drinking water treatment plant despite staff knowing the levels were higher than state health officials recommended, documents accessed by Wausau Pilot & Review revealed. The city ignored a 2019 report warning about toxic chemicals in water. The city has decided to invest about an additional $17 million in a new filtration technology for the purpose.
