Wausau Residents Can Expect to See Some Movement on PFAS

Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 -- 12:01 PM

(Mike Leischner, WSAU) Wausau residents can expect some movement on the PFAS front in the next two weeks.

According to Mike Leischner of WSAU, Mayor Katie Rosenberg says they're continuing to research which removal methods work best for their water's chemistry, and how to best finance those methods within the new drinking water treatment plant.

“So, one of the things is that we want to make sure we are procuring things correctly, so we can be reimbursed using bipartisan infrastructure dollars, ARPA, whatever it is. But we have a very specific procurement policy that we have to follow."

She says they are also keeping an eye on how those upgrades could impact water bills as well. “I want to say the most expensive version would increase the bill between $3 and $10 a quarter. I’m not sure where that landed. But that’s what we need to look through with our financial advisor and make sure we’re looking at everything correctly and that the public has that information.”

She says they are aiming to get the contaminates down as low as possible, because it remains to be seen where the Environmental Protection Agency's standards for PFAS will land. “If we go lower than 20 parts per trillion, which we might be regulated too, we don’t have the EPA regulatory standard yet. So, it could be we have to go lower than that. I’m not sure, so I want to make sure we have all the information in front of us.”

Additionally the city's finance committees and council will meet this week to discuss providing additional filters from ZeroWater for the pitchers that were distributed to residents this spring to remove the so-called forever chemicals from the city's drinking water.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.