Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visited Marinette yesterday to see the city’s process for keeping “forever chemicals” such as PFAS out of the water supply. Evers was joined by Marinette Mayor Steve Genisot and Water – Wastewater Director Warren Howard along with two council members Rick Polzin and Ken Keller as they got the opportunity to get a first-hand look at the city’s purifying systems and meet the people in charge of running them. Following the tour, Evers spoke about the $125 million PFAS investment, saying, “my concern is that people are getting all bent out of shape. One way or another on that bill, it has nothing to do about getting money out the door. Joint finance could have released that money a long, long time ago. They could release it today if they wanted to. The bill has nothing to do with releasing that money.”

Evers says, “people here in Marinette are doing everything they can, they have a great system, and they have great people working here. I don’t want them to be harmed by us not doing our job.”

Just last month Evers urged Republican lawmakers to support a compromise proposal aimed at expeditiously releasing $125 million to fight PFAS contaminants’ statewide, asking the Republican – Controlled Joint Finance Committee to release funds to combat PFAS without controversial provisions to benefit polluters contained in a Republican – backed bill passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature. According to Evers, the $125 million investment to combat PFAS statewide, available through the 2023-25 biennial budget passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature and enacted by Evers last July, has languished unspent in Madison for months – over 230 days – as Republican legislatures have ignored repeated requests from Evers to release the critical funding.