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DNR Prepares to Implement Stricter Drinking Water Standards

PFAS contamination is a persistent issue in drinking water systems across the state. Also known as “forever chemicals,” the PFAS family can cause cancer, thyroid issues, and a litany of other health problems. Wisconsin already has contamination guidelines in place. But the ones that the EPA established on the federal level last spring are more strict. The state’s Department of Natural Resources started the process yesterday to implement those federal guidelines. But it will take years to approve the rule change and put it into practice on the state level. Adam DeWeese is the manager of the Public Water Supply Section at the state’s DNR. He tells WORT News Producer Faye Parks that Wisconsin got the jump on many other states because we’ve already started reckoning with PFAS contamination. Image courtesy: Laura Nawrocik via Flickr.

Broadcast on:: 26 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

All right, I have Adam DeWeese on the line. Thank you for joining me. My pleasure, Penny. So the EPA implemented standards for the PFAS family of chemicals and drinking water last year. In Wisconsin, it's actually one of the few states that had already implemented PFAS standards before. The DNR recommended yesterday that we try to match the federal standard. So can you walk us through how our standards stack up to theirs? Okay, so Wisconsin is one of just a handful of states that kind of got out in front of this issue ahead of the feds, and we put in place state-only maximum contaminant levels for two PFAS contaminants. That's PFOA and PFOS. And our standard currently is 70 parts per trillion, which is in line with the, I believe, 2016 health advisory level that EPA had in place. And this data design has changed. We know more about the toxicity of PFAS and so that the federal MCLs that were promulgated earlier this year at the federal level have been reduced to four parts per trillion. So that's, you know, whatever that is, 20-something times smaller, I guess, than the 70 parts per trillion currently in place. So we do have a time period now a few years to work on our rule writing process in the state of Wisconsin. There's about a 30-month window, which follows some pretty significant steps to make sure that we adopt the federal rules into our state administrative code. And it takes some time, and there's a lot of opportunity for public input. It's not an automatic thing, just because the federal standards have been promulgated at the federal level that we have this time period now to adopt the rules into state code. And this time period right now is an opportunity for us to see how it will affect Wisconsin and take input from our stakeholders and see how we want to implement it in Wisconsin. So just to clarify, when you say it went from 70 to 4, that's the maximum. So by lowering the maximum, the standards on the federal level are more strict. Is that right? Yes, that is correct. So how many more public water systems would be required to implement new treatment systems? Should this go through? I mean, that's an excellent question. And one of the great things about Wisconsin is because we implemented state standards, you know, the higher state standards, the 70 parts per trillion back in 2022, August 2022, we have already sampled all of the public water systems that would be required to sample under the new federal rules. So we actually are one of the fortunate states that have the data. So we can actually answer the question that you just asked how many systems would be affected by this change. And based on the data that we have, our results indicate 90 systems right around 90 public water systems would now have to come into corrective actions and, you know, perhaps install a treatment system. That 90 is not all big, municipal systems. It's actually, we have non-community water systems in Wisconsin that are, I think folks don't necessarily know our public water systems. But if you're out in a rural area, you're not in the city and you're drinking water, it's probably from a well at that business. And if those businesses serve 25 more people, they're an actual public water system. And a lot of those systems have been affected too. So in that large group of 90 systems, about half of them are non-community systems, which you'll probably need to do wells or treatment. And then the rest would be community systems of which some are municipal water systems, but some are smaller or rural, potentially mobile home parks and those types of facilities. So yeah, the numbers, I think I don't have the current number of systems affected by the current 70 parts per trillion. I think we had about two systems maybe, had some results that were over 70, and we're working with those systems right now. So that's a fairly significant jump from two to 90. The nice thing there is we are spending bilateral infrastructure law money to help with grants and safe drinking water loans to help these 90 systems mitigate their PFAS contamination before the federal MCLs with tic-tacin Wisconsin. So that's another nice opportunity for Wisconsin because we got out of it. We know essentially the list of systems that would be affected, those 90 I mentioned, and then we'll have funding opportunities for most of them. We, in fact, a lot of them have already come in for those funding opportunities such that when we actually have the rules in place in Wisconsin in 2026 or 2027, we will have taken care of a lot of the systems that are dealing with that contamination now. You mentioned this is a nearly three-year process to actually approve the change, but does the state actually have an option? Could they decide not to implement the federal guidelines? If we did do that, I mean, that's always an option, but what would happen then is we would no longer be in the driver's seat for that part of the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the federal government would have to then take over what is called primacy for enforcing that part of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Wisconsin. So yeah, we could not do it, but then the federal, you know, we would then be at the mercy of the federal government, and we would lose kind of the local control. So it's not, it would not be recommended. And so I'm wondering too, do you potentially see any barriers to maintaining that state control to getting this through? Obviously, a lot of folks will weigh in on how we're going to implement this in Wisconsin. We don't really have a choice in that when something is a federal rule, we can either implement the rule as strict as the feds, or turn it back to the feds, and then they would have to, you know, implement it as strictly as the federal rule requires. Generally speaking, we've never in my experience turned down a federal requirement before, but there are opportunities generally with these rules for the state to work with the feds on how we want to implement the rules. You know, if there's any wiggle room for timing of things or, you know, specific sort of operating procedures, we can negotiate something like that with EPA. But for the most part, we really do need to follow the federal rules, at least as strict as the federal requirements, you know, speculating on challenges getting. The rule adopted is hard to do. You know, there will be opinions during public comment periods, and we'll take them all into consideration, and we'll have those conversations. But it's challenging to predict how difficult something like that will be. So is there anything else you'd like to add that we haven't touched on yet? You know, I don't think so at this time I just would reiterate that, you know, we're at the early part of our rulemaking process here. We just went before the Natural Resources Board yesterday to get permission to go out for our public hearing now on the scope statements, which will happen next week, October 3rd. Then the next step after that, we'll get to the step of doing the rulemaking and having more public input opportunities. And I think for your listeners who are interested in this, if you want to get more information, it's always a good option to go to Wisconsin DNR's website, go to drinking water, and there we have a whole section on NR809 updates. If you click on that, there'll be information on upcoming public meetings and so forth for all of our drinking water related rule updates. Thank you again for agreeing to speak with me, Adam. My pleasure to say and thanks for your interest and thanks for the interview. I do appreciate it. That was Adam DeWeese, the manager of the Public Water Supply section at the State's Department of Natural Resources.