Laura SchulteMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON - A large plume of "forever chemicals" found in the Bay of Green Bay has been traced back to Tyco Fire Products, a Marinette-based company known for mixing firefighting foam at its facility.
The study, conducted by UW-Madison department of civil and environmental engineering researcher Christy Remucal and postdoctoral co-investigator Sarah Balgooyen, was published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal in late December.
The two researchers sampled water along the shores of the Bay, Remucal said, where Tyco consultants had previously marked the PFAS plume as ending. In those samples, PFAS identical to those used at the Marinette facility were found at rates 10 times higher than the rest of Lake Michigan.
A previous study by the two researchers found that tributaries feeding into the Bay were contributing to the levels of PFAS found, but this study was able to use "fingerprinting" to pinpoint where the compounds came from.
"In this case, the PFAS fingerprint in Green Bay is nearly identical to PFAS associated with Tyco and includes PFAS known to be active ingredients in firefighting foams," the study says.
The fingerprinting method could be used to hold accountable manufacturers or other polluting companies responsible for contamination.
Tyco, a subsidiary of Johnson Controls, tested firefighting foam containing PFAS outdoors from 1962 until ending the practice in 2017. The foam ended up on the soil surrounding the company's fire training center, as well as in the Marinette sewer system when the foam was washed into drains.
Tyco, formerly known as the Ansul Company, was purchased by Johnson Controls in 2016.
The contamination in Marinette and Peshtigo stems from the Tyco fire training site, where fires were set outdoors and then doused with foam. The foam contaminated the ground it came into contact and, eventually, the PFAS were carried across the area by the groundwater and the sanitary sewers it was washed into after testing.
Outdoor testing was halted in 2017, but PFAS have continued to be an issue, forcing hundreds of residents in the town of Peshtigo to rely on treatment systems to filter the water from their private wells, or bottled water for drinking and cooking.
In addition to higher concentrations in the Bay, elevated levels of PFAS were also found in rivers near fields treated with biosolids — treated sewage sludge — likely from the Marinette treatment plant. Biosolids are often spread on agricultural fields as fertilizer.
The study found that PFAS in biosolids can become mobile, making their way into streams despite being spread on land.
"Using biosolids is really great, it recycles nutrients, it's a green way to do agriculture," Remucal said. "But if the biosolids have PFAS, you can spread the PFAS further."
Remucal suggested that treatment plants selling their biosolids should begin testing, but acknowledged that many people are hesitant to look, because of the risk of no longer being able to get rid of the treated sludge.
"But it's better to find out," she said.
Doug Oitzinger, the former mayor of Marinette and member of the activist group Save Our H2O, said the findings have upheld community concerns regarding how far the contamination has reached from Tyco.
"It confirms what we suspected of the biosolids having leached into the Peshtigo River," he said.
Karen Tognarelli, a media relations employee for Tyco, said in a statement that the company welcomes continued research on PFAS, and has been transparent with the data they've collected in Marinette.
"Our work has been overseen by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at every stage, and Tyco has shared all workplans, data and the results we have achieved with the public," she said in an email. "PFAS is a problem across the country, and it is clear that Tyco’s cleanup efforts are the most comprehensive and advanced in Wisconsin while many other known sources are yet to be addressed.”
PFAS, orper- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,are a family of man-made chemicals used for their water- and stain-resistant qualities in products like clothing and carpet, nonstick cookware, packaging and firefighting foam. The family includes over 6,000 compounds, which are persistent, remaining both in the environment and human body over time.
The chemicals have been linked to types of kidney and testicular cancers, lower birth weights, harm to immune and reproductive systems, altered hormone regulation and altered thyroid hormones. The chemicals enter the human body largely through drinking water.
The Great Lakes serve as a drinking water source for nearly 30 million people across the U.S. and Canada − 10 percent of the total U.S. population and 30 percent of Canada's.
Although the City of Green Bay does not get its drinking water directly from the bay, the Great Lakes are all connected. And by the time contamination winds up in the bay, it's already been in the groundwater, rivers and streams for years or even decades, said Joel Brammeier, the CEO at the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
"This really is about preventing it at the source and getting away from this mentality that the Great Lakes are something to be cleaned up," Brammeier said.
"We spent decades in the Great Lakes region spending billions on cleaning up pollution caused by companies and people who are no longer here. We can't let history repeat like this," he said.
According to Brammeier, this new information calls for a regional commitment to provide safe and clean drinking water for everyone at the source.
Remucal said this kind of sampling shows how much of an issue PFAS will continue to be, and raises more questions about what other compounds in the PFAS family could be there. The UW sampling included 22 compounds, but there are thousands more that can't even be sampled yet that could potentially cause health or environmental issues.
"This is going to be an issue for a very long time, and we don't know the extent of what is there," Remucal said.
Journal Sentinel reporter Caitlin Looby contributed.
