March 13, 2023 at 12:42 p.m.
DNR announces expansion of PFAS testing in Stella
Letters sent to 56 year-round residents and two summer camps
Late last week, the agency released a bulletin advising that letters offering cost-free well testing had been sent to 56 year-round residents of the rural eastern Oneida County township who live within 2.5 miles of the intersection of County Highway C and Stella Lake Road.
Two summer camps located within 2.5 miles of the Highway C and Stella Lake Road intersection also received letters, according to the DNR.
"Recipients of these letters are being offered cost-free sampling of their private well for PFAS," according to the DNR bulletin. "Previous sampling efforts included homeowners within approximately 1 mile of the Stella Town Hall. The DNR plans to complete sampling for eligible homeowners who respond to this offer in March 2023. Homeowners with results exceeding DHS public health guidelines will be eligible for in-home bottled water service funded through the DNR. The DNR's review of Oneida County land and tax records indicates that all year-round residents within 2.5 miles of the intersection of County Hwy C and Stella Lake Road who have not already sampled their well for PFAS have been contacted via this mailing. Year-round residents within this area that did not receive a letter or those that have questions can email [email protected] or call 888-626-0605."
As of late January, 24 households in the Town of Stella, which is located approximately 11 miles from Rhinelander, are already receiving emergency water deliveries due to high levels of PFAS in their wells.
The contamination was detected in late 2022 as part of a statewide well testing project.
Some of the results from Stella represent some of the highest PFAS readings found in the state to date, according to the DNR. One woman who spoke during a January public meeting with DNR officials on the contamination issue said her next door neighbor's well showed PFAS contamination at more than 40,000 ppt (parts per trillion).
For context, the recommended safe level is 20 ppt.
PFAS are a group of human-made chemicals used for decades in numerous products, including non-stick cookware, fast food wrappers, stain-resistant sprays and certain types of firefighting foam. These contaminants have made their way into the environment through accidental spills of PFAS-containing materials, discharges of PFAS-containing wastewater to treatment plants and certain types of firefighting foams, according to the DNR. These chemicals are known to accumulate in the human body, posing several risks to human health including certain cancers, liver damage and decreased fertility.
DNR officials have stressed that it may take years, if ever, to determine what caused the contamination in Stella
"(PFAS) marches to the beat of its own drummer in the environment," DNR remediation and redevelopment program manager Christine Sieger stated during a late January media briefing on the Stella PFAS investigation. "It doesn't behave like other things in the environment and so investigation into PFAS... like any other contaminant, can take years. In some cases we're not going to find a responsible party. We're going to look and we might find that we can't tell where it's coming from. We could find that there are multiple sources responsible. It's an iterative process and it's one that takes time."
One potential source of the contamination mentioned by Stella residents during the January public meeting was the use of sludge on agricultural fields in the town.
On Feb. 7, in response to an inquiry from the River News, the DNR confirmed the City of Rhinelander and the Ahlstrom-Munskjo paper mill spread sludge in Stella from the late 1990s to 2011, in the case of the city, and 2021 in the case of the mill.
"We can confirm that both sewage sludge (also known as biosolids) from the Rhinelander Wastewater Treatment Facility and Paper Mill Sludge from the Ahlstrom-Munksjo Specialty Solutions Facility (also known as Expera Specialty Solutions) was spread in the Town of Stella," DNR field operations manager Tim Ryan said in response to a request from the newspaper for information on the agency's documentation of the use of sludge in Stella. "The City of Rhinelander has spread biosolids on 8 different sites in the Town of Stella between 1997 and 2011. Ahlstrom Munksjo (or previous owners) have spread paper mill sludge on 63 different sites in the Town of Stella between 1996 and 2021."
According to the DNR, spreading for both Rhinelander and Ahlstrom-Munksjo "likely occurred before 1996 as well" but the agency's database only goes back to 1996.
"The Department is still analyzing data submitted for 2022 which is not submitted until the end of January for each previous year," Ryan noted.
In disclosing the information on the past use of sludge in Stella, the agency was careful to note it cannot definitively say the spreading of sludge caused the contamination.
"The Department does not have PFAS data for the paper mill sludge or sewage sludge/biosolids that was land applied," Ryan said. "The Department is in the process of identifying potential sources."
In response to the report, Addie Teeters, head of marketing communications & public affairs for Ahlstrom Munksjo, stressed that the company received permits from the DNR for its "landspreading activities."
"Since Ahlstrom acquired the Rhinelander mill in 2018, it has continued participating in a regulated biosolids landspreading program administered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources," Teeters wrote in response to an email request for comment on the DNR report. "As part of that program, we have received and operate pursuant to permits issued by the Department. We maintain records which are provided to the Department relating to our ongoing landspreading activities."
"Ahlstrom has led the marketplace in developing PFAS-free technology for more than a decade and utilizes our FluoroFree® technology at the Rhinelander mill," she added.
"At this time the City cannot validate what spreading the DNR may have authorized in the 1990;s and early 2000's," city attorney Steve Sorenson wrote in response to a request for comment from the city regarding its past history of spreading sludge in Stella.
"Since I have been with the City there has been no spreading of biosolids in the Town of Stella by the City,
Sorenson added.
"Even though I was not involved nor were any of the current staff of the City involved it is the desire of the City of Rhinelander to maintain the quality of our water supply. This is where the city is directing its efforts. The City is looking at new filtration systems and a potential new well or wells to insure safe water to the citizens of Rhinelander. The City is looking to the future rather than spending time in the 'blame game' environment that so many others are supporting. Our most recent tests of the City water supply demonstrates that the City's commitment to safe water is working."
Indeed, the City Council voted last month to retain the services of MSA Professional Services for investigation and development of a location for a proposed Well No. 9.
A new well has been deemed necessary as two city wells located near the Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport - No. 7 and No. 8 - have been offline since 2019 due to unsafe levels of PFAS contamination.
The city currently has three functioning wells.
The new well is not expected to be operational until the end of 2024 at the earliest, according to the public works department.
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