Tyco’s extraction wells are working, but demands continue for more effort

MARINETTE – The following is the third of a three-part reporting series on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Sept. 11 PFAS Listening Session held in Marinette.

While new extraction wells Johnson Controls Inc. has constructed in the Marinette area are helping to reduce the contamination from its Tyco Fire Technology Center, more are needed, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said.

So far, 14 extraction wells are operating and extraction well No. 15 is expected to be installed this fall, said Alyssa Sellwood, a DNR project manager of remediation and redevelopment who led the PFAS Listening Session at the NWTC Marinette campus.

The extraction wells are being added where the contamination is detected at particularly high levels. PFOA at 45,000 parts per trillion were detected in December 2024 where extraction well No. 12 now operates, while the level was about 8,200 ppt near extraction well No. 13, Sellwood said.

The samples were collected at the sites before the extraction wells were operating, Sellwood explained.

The groundwater at the sites stems from Tyco’s Fire Technology Center in Marinette, though the PFAS contaminated water doesn’t always flow where you might expect, she said. It has cropped up in many different locations, including upstream in what’s called “upwelling,” Sellwood said.

Upwelling occurs when “groundwater flows from below ground up into a creek from the streambed,” she said in an email. It has made the clean-up job all the more challenging.

The extraction wells Johnson Controls has installed are effective at restraining the PFAS, but they don’t eliminate it completely, she said.

“Adding new extraction wells is expected to capture more of the PFAS-contaminated groundwater and to reduce the amount of PFAS-contaminated water that can upwell into Ditch B and the amount of PFAS in the groundwater flowing away from extraction wells toward the Menominee River and Bay of Green Bay,” she said.

The DNR said the extraction wells are working, based on Tyco’s data from regular monitoring. The company is expected to submit its next report to the DNR by Nov. 15, she said. Despite some improvements in selected locations, Sellwood said, “JCI/Tyco’s cleanup to restore the environment to the extent practicable from its past discharges of PFAS will take decades.”

In response to a reporter’s request for comment, a Johnson Controls spokesman said Tyco has spent $100 million on its cleanup effort. “Tyco has been working since 2017 to respond to the presence of PFAS that came from our Fire Technology Center,” the spokesman said. “The results are strong: Our Groundwater Extraction and Treatment System (GETS) has successfully treated over 300 million gallons of groundwater. We’ve also seen a 40 percent reduction in the area of highest PFAS concentrations. And surface water is looking much better too: It is early days, but even in high-water events, levels in the creek known as Ditch B are down 90 percent. We just also added more monitoring wells.”

Efforts to clean up the ongoing PFAS spill from Johnson Controls’ Tyco unit in Marinette aren’t going fast enough for clean-water advocates, according to comments made during the listening session.

It had been about two-and-a-half years since the DNR held a Marinette area PFAS listening session, Sellwood said, due in part to the Wisconsin Supreme Court case of Wisconsin Manufacturers Commerce v DNR. On June 24, the high court said DNR didn’t err when it demanded Oconomowoc dry cleaners Leather Rich remediate a spill of “forever chemicals” on its property, despite the lack of rules governing PFAS in Wisconsin.

The DNR didn’t abuse its authority as an executive-branch agency when it acted “to protect public health and safety” and serve as “good stewards of state taxpayer dollars,” by demanding Leather Rich remediate PFAS detected on its land, according to the high court’s majority opinion.

Johnson Controls’ Tyco unit in Marinette wasn’t involved in the case the Supreme Court heard, but the case also preserves the power of Wisconsin’s Spill Law. Tyco has taken responsibility for PFAS-contaminated groundwater in a limited area of Marinette and the Town of Peshtigo, but not in other places where forever chemicals have been detected at elevated levels in Marinette County, the DNR said.

A Johnson Controls spokesman said, “Tyco has worked proactively, quickly and collaboratively with the community to address PFAS associated with our historic operations and will continue to provide bottled water to those properties where we previously offered assistance.”

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are used in the manufacture of fire-fighting foam, coatings, waterproof materials and personal care items. They’ve been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid issues, liver damage, cholesterol issues, hypertension and developmental issues.

While groundwater standards for PFAS don’t exist in Wisconsin, the state Department of Health Services has lowered its health-advisory levels for many of the most common forever chemicals in use, said Nathan Kloczko, Department of Health Services health assessor.

Based on revised guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DHS has lowered its health-advisory levels to 4 parts per trillion from 20 ppt for PFOA, PFOS and other substances. It also has issued advisories for individual PFAS substances instead of compounds, Kloczko said.

Area residents who participated in the listening session wanted to know how the issue would be addressed long term. One said his son lives not far from where PFAS from Ditch D flows into the Bay. The resident said his wife had and he has Parkinson’s. “I’m just wondering about my son’s well-being and what’s going to happen with that,” he said.

“We’re making sure people can drink water,” Sellwood said. One option the DNR is offering is Culligan bottled water to property owners who aren’t in the area Johnson Controls has taken responsibility for. “In terms of additional action, I don’t know where that will go,” Sellwood said.

Marinette resident Andi Rich asked State Senator Mary Felzkowski if she thought residents should pay for the clean up when a corporation has been named a responsible party. “Absolutely not,” Felzkowski said. “Here we know that Johnson Controls Tyco was 100% responsible for the PFAS issue in Marinette and they should be responsible for the cleanup.”

The dispute with Johnson Controls’ Tyco unit and the DNR continues as the two are in active litigation. “We have that disagreement on whether or not they’ve met their responsibility as outlined in the site investigation of the state code,” Sellwood said. “They feel they’re taking care of all of the contamination that they’ve caused.”

A resident of an area outside the contaminated plume wanted to know if the DNR would monitor PFAS levels where he and his neighbors get their water. He said they tested the foam from a creek near where a music festival is held to the west of the city. “How come there is no testing or monitoring of wells out in that area?” he asked.

Sellwood said the DNR named Johnson Controls a responsible party six or seven years ago in an area where biosolids were spread around fields. “We know there was sludge spread that potentially had their PFAS and they’ve been providing water to some of these people. Under the law, they should also be starting an investigation… To date that hasn’t happened.”

In response to a reporter’s request for comment, a Johnson Controls spokesperson said the biosolids in the area the DNR discussed come from multiple wastewater treatment plans and multiple sources. “Tyco discharged wastewater to only one plant – the City of Marinette’s – but that ended in 2019. As Tyco was investigating the extent of PFAS impacts from historic operations, it offered bottled water to those properties with wells potentially impacted by the Marinette biosolids that were previously sampled and that exceeded proposed groundwater standards. Since that time, it has become apparent that WDNR has continued to permit the ongoing spread of biosolids in this area. It is confusing and contradictory that the WDNR on the one hand expresses concerns about the farmland application of biosolids while at the same continuing to permit the practice.”

Resident Jeff Budish asked Felzkowski who she is representing, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce or the people in the room.

“Our government legislation is actually protecting the corporate polluters that are killing people in our area by having a 20 ppt drinking water standard when the EPA recognizes it at 4 ppt. Why aren’t the legislators protecting the people they’re supposed to be representing?” he asked. “These corporations have made billions and trillions of dollars on the backs of our firemen, on the backs of our health and welfare. Why ain’t the legislation picking up the price to protect us from this?”