[Firefighters spray PFAS-foams on ATC transformer at MGE in 2019. Photo-Wisconsin State Journal]
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About a year ago, I wrote that PFAS from the 2019 ATC fire at MGE was still oozing, draining, and sloshing into Lake Monona, while the company was asking DNR to issue “site closure” based on scientifically absurd and unsupported arguments–including the claim that the high levels of PFAS in surface and groundwater were not migrating offsite.
In my post I explained why this and other claims were dubious if not laughable. At the very end I wrote “… it would be an outrage if DNR quietly issued closure for this site without open and robust discussions with city leaders, scientific experts, and the public about the PFAS remaining at MGE and its environmental and public health implications.”
As expected, a few months after I wrote this, in August 2021, DNR indeed quietly issued ATC closure with no public or political discussions. No media coverage. The same weak, unsupported claims described in last year’s post were made in the closure documents. There is no point repeating them here and explaining again why they are bogus (read the post if you’re interested).
But here’s one claim in the closure document, just for laughs. DNR asked ATC’s consultants to “Describe the surface water and/or sediment contaminant concentrations and areas after remediation.” The answer? “…PFAS impacts from the AFFF application do not appear to be present any longer.”
WTF? “Do not appear to be present any longer?” This conclusion was reportedly “[b]ased on the lack of 6:2 FTS and the prevalence of unrelated PFAS in the surface water samples collected at the storm sewer outfalls.” No samples have been collected at stormwater outfalls into Lake Monona since 2020 as far as I know. Further, why is “lack of 6:2 FTS” a key deciding factor? What does “prevalance of unrelated PFAS” mean? What “unrelated PFAS”–and at what levels? I could go on about why these statements are completely nonsensical, but there’s no point.
The DNR, likely lacking political will to question American Transmission Company and/or Madison Gas & Electric (a giant long-time economic and political powerhouse of Madison), apparently accepted these absurd claims and issued the closure.
PFAS “forever chemicals” will continue to ooze, drain, and slosh from the MGE site into Lake Monona, and sink down into deep groundwater, indefinitely. Nobody will measure them, so nobody will know.
Same old story, one I’ve written over and over again, ad nauseam…
Does anyone care? Clearly, no.
