Campbell supervisor calls for public help in protesting PFAS pollution

A thousand letters from French Island area families might persuade Wisconsin political leaders to take action against water pollution from PFAS chemicals.

That’s the hope of Lee Donahue from the Campbell Town Board.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Donahue urged the public to write letters saying PFAS, found in hundreds of wells throughout Campbell, are not safe.

She said many people need to speak up to say “PFAS contamination is not acceptable, it’s not safe, it’s not sustainable.”

Donahue added that the town board can’t carry the message alone.

Families on French Island have been using bottled water for over a year, because PFAS chemicals are in their well water.

Donahue said she testified about the chemicals at a national EPA hearing last week, where other people told “horrifying” stories about water contamination.

“People talked about farms that had been in their family for generations and generations that are now wastelands, that are so toxic that they can’t do anything with them,” Donahue said. “They can no longer farm on them, they cannot use the water on them, and they cannot sell them because it’s just a toxic piece of property.”

Firefighting foam used by the La Crosse Airport for decades has been blamed for the pollution of wells throughout French Island, forcing families to rely on bottled water for drinking and other uses.