Wausau Mayor Says City's PFAS Contamination Source Remains Unknown

Tuesday, June 6th, 2023 -- 2:00 PM

(Bob Hague, WRN) The city of Wausau is removing PFAS at its new water treatment plant.

But exactly where the chemicals originated remains unknown for now. Mayor Katie Rosenberg told the state Senate’s Natural Resources committee on Monday that an old landfill is just one possibility.

“To my understanding that was closed in the 60s so I'm not sure what that looks like for contamination possibilities. We're an old industrial city too, so a lot of industrial metal, manufacturing, things like that along the river. It's going to take some time to figure out what that looks like.”

"So a lot of industrial metal manufacturing things like that along the river it's going to take some time to figure out what that looks like and we're working on looking at those sources but we just know it's going to take a while."

Tests revealed PFAS in unsafe levels in all 11 of Wausau’s municipal wells, and it’s just one of numerous communities where the harmful “forever chemicals” have been confirmed.

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