The Wisconsin State Senate passed two bipartisan bills — Assembly Bill 130 and AB 131 — finally unlocking $125 million in PFAS remediation funding that has sat unspent in Madison for more than two years. Governor Tony Evers, who first secured the funding in the 2023–25 Biennial Budget and has spent years pressing lawmakers to release it, is expected to sign both bills in the coming weeks.
"Today is the culmination of years of work by my administration and marks a historic win for the people of Wisconsin," Evers said in a statement.
The legislation splits the funding across several targeted programs. The largest portion — roughly $80 million — flows into a community grant program that helps local governments tackle PFAS contamination in their water supplies. Eligible activities range from sampling private wells and treating public water systems to testing drinking water in schools and child care centers.
Another $35 million expands the Well Compensation Grant Program, making it easier for homeowners, small businesses, schools, and child care facilities with private wells to access help when PFAS is detected. An additional allocation covers emergency bottled water for private well owners in the immediate window after contamination is discovered — a gap that has left families in a difficult position in past incidents.
The bills also create 10 new DNR positions and direct $1.3 million in staff funding toward water resource protection, environmental management, and program administration. That staffing piece matters: funding without the capacity to deploy it has been part of the problem in Wisconsin for years.
Critically, the legislation includes liability protections for farmers, landowners, and fire departments — entities that frequently come into contact with PFAS-containing products but are not the source of contamination.
PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals that don't break down naturally and accumulate in human tissue over time. The EPA finalized new drinking water standards in April 2024, lowering the enforceable limit for PFOA and PFOS to 4 parts per trillion — a sharp reduction from the previous 70 ppt advisory level. Wisconsin moved to align with those federal limits earlier this month.
EWG's national PFAS contamination tracker identifies hundreds of contaminated sites across Wisconsin, underscoring why advocates in communities from French Island to Marinette have spent years pushing for action.
For EHS and compliance professionals, the passage of these bills signals an acceleration of state-level PFAS activity — including new DNR enforcement capacity and expanded testing programs in industrial-adjacent areas. That means more sites may face scrutiny, and organizations with any historical PFAS exposure in Wisconsin should be monitoring this closely.
