STELLA, Wis. (AP) — Kristen Hanneman made a small decision in 2022 that would upend life for her entire town.
State scientists were checking private drinking water wells across Wisconsin for a widely used family of harmful chemicals called PFAS. They mailed an offer to test the well outside her tidy farmhouse surrounded by potato farms cut out of dense forest. Without much thought, she accepted.
Months later, Hanneman found herself on the phone with a state toxicologist who told her to stop drinking the water — now. The well her three kids grew up on had levels thousands of times higher than federal drinking water limits for what are commonly known as forever chemicals.
Hanneman’s well was hardly the only one with a problem. And the chemicals were everywhere. Pristine lakes and superb hunting made Stella a sportsman’s dream. Now officials say the fish and deer should be eaten sparingly or not at all.
Many residents here have known their neighbors for decades. If they want to move away from all this, it’s hard to sell their property – who, after all, would want to buy?
“Had I just thrown that survey in the garbage,” Hanneman said, “would any of this be where it is today?”
Stella is far from the only community near industrial sites and military bases nationwide where enormous amounts of PFAS have contaminated the landscape, posing a particular threat to nearby well owners.
Forever chemicals get their name because they resist breaking down, whether in well water or the environment. In the human body, they accumulate in the liver, kidneys, and blood. Research has linked them to an increased risk of certain cancers and developmental delays in children.
Government estimates suggest as much as half of U.S. households have some level of PFAS in their water — whether it comes from a private well or a tap. But while federal officials have put strict limits on water provided by utilities, those rules don’t apply to the roughly 40 million people in the United States who rely on private drinking water wells.
Short of a random test, as in Stella, few may learn their water is tainted with the odorless, colorless chemicals.
At least 20 states do not test private wells for PFAS outside of areas where problems are already suspected, according to a survey of state agencies by The Associated Press. Even in states that do, residents often wait years for help and receive far fewer resources than people tied into municipal tap water.
PFAS are so common because they are so useful. Uniquely able to repel moisture and withstand extreme temperatures, the chemicals have been critical to making waterproof shoes, nonstick cookware, and foam that could extinguish the hottest fires.
When the chemicals reach soil or water, as they have near factories and waste sites, they are extremely difficult to remove. North Carolina saw an early example, with well owners downstream from a PFAS manufacturing plant still dealing with tainted water years later. In rural northwest Georgia, communities are reckoning with widespread contamination from PFAS that major carpet manufacturers applied for stain resistance.
Robert Bilott, an environmental attorney who pursued one of the first major lawsuits against a PFAS manufacturer in the late 1990s, said many states don’t have the money to help.
“The well owners — the victims of the contamination — shouldn’t have to be paying,” he said. “But where’s this money going to come from?”
The alarming results from Hanneman’s well triggered a rush of testing, beginning with the wells of nearby neighbors and later expanding miles away.
How the chemicals infiltrated water beneath Stella’s sandy soil was initially a mystery. State officials eventually suspected the paper mill in the small city of Rhinelander, a 10-mile drive from town. The mill had specialized in making paper for microwave popcorn bags — a product that was greaseproof thanks in part to PFAS.
The mill’s manufacturing process also produced a waste sludge that could be used as fertilizer. By 1996, and for decades after with state approval, the mill spread millions of pounds on farm fields in and around Stella. Wisconsin officials now believe the PFAS it contained seeped into the subterranean reserves of groundwater that feed lakes, streams, and many residential wells.
In September, the state sent initial letters assigning cleanup and investigation responsibilities to current and former owners of the mill. These companies point out that the state permitted their sludge spreading, starting long before the dangers of PFAS were widely understood.
In Stella, residents are grappling with the chemicals’ unpredictable underground path. Though Tom LaDue’s backyard extends to the edge of a highly contaminated lake, testing found barely any PFAS in his family’s well.
Somehow, a neighbor farther back from the lake found 1,500 parts per trillion of PFAS in her shallower well — magnitudes above the federal limits for tap water. The mother of three in that house says she is regularly tired, which she blames on thyroid issues, wondering if the water is to blame.
In one picture from a few years ago, LaDue is baiting a hook as his grandson dangles a fishing pole over the side of their boat. The sun shines bright.
“It’s a nice lake and we fished in here,” he said. “Now they tell us we can’t eat the fish anymore.”
While utilities can rely on centralized treatment facilities, restoring safe water for well owners must be done household by household. Some well owners get left out as regulators, lawyers, and companies strike deals over who gets help.
Federal officials are evaluating Stella for inclusion in the Superfund program, a large-scale decontamination process that would take years. They also partnered with Wisconsin officials to expand well sampling in July.
At an October public meeting in Stella, several residents asked if they should be worried about their well water. There is a risk, state employees said, but they could not offer unlimited free tests to rule it out. Those who wanted one immediately would have to pay for it.
The Hanneman family moved into their home when their oldest son was nearly two. He’s 19 now. His parents worry about all those years of exposure, and have joined an effort to sue the paper mill’s owners and PFAS manufacturers.
Several plaintiffs in the growing lawsuit allege property damage and that their cholesterol, thyroid and kidney diseases are linked to contaminated groundwater. The companies have denied responsibility.
The crisis in Stella sparked by the test of her own well drove Kristen Hanneman to run for a town leadership role, where she continues to push for better testing and accountability.
