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toward green Bay as well.
Mayor, thanks very much.

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>> Thanks for having me.
>> Now that 125 million

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state dollars are coming to
the rescue for communities

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across Wisconsin, poisoned
by the forever chemicals

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PFAs, the question is, when
will the money come and how

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much will go where those
questions are front of mind.

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In the town of Stella,
population about 650, with

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some of the highest
concentrations of PFAs in

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the country. Town Chair
William Casey Crump is here,

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and thanks very much for
being here.

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>> Thank you for having me.
>> So what was your

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reaction when you learned
the funds would finally be

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released?
>> It was it was a relief,

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to be honest. It's been,
you know, two years or

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three years roughly, I
think, since those funds

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were originally talked
about. And to have the

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Senate and the governor
finally come to an

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agreement and get that
stuff signed off on and get

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it out is, is the first of
of many steps yet to come,

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I think.
>> Yeah. Because what do

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you know about how much
Stella will receive?

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>> That's the great unknown.
I talked to DNR yesterday

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as a matter of fact. And
and we're going to they're

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still trying to figure out
exactly who's going to

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control the money, how it's
going to be distributed.

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They're not even sure
themselves exactly. You

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know, whether it's going to
be municipalities like

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Stella that end up getting
some of the money or, or

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our residents, I should say
not not necessarily

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municipality or it's going
to be public water works

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that get the money. You
know, we've got Wausau,

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we've got Tomahawk and some
and Rhinelander Yvonne that

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have well, issues for their
township, for their towns.

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Whereas out here in Starks
we're individual wells. And

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so each homeowner is
responsible for that. And

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so it's very important,
hopefully, that there will

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be some of that money that
will go directly to those

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residents.
>> Because would that be

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priority one for the funds?
And Stella Private Wells.

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>> I would love to see it
become priority one. Either

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that or treatment systems.
The way it is right now is

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the DNR did have some funds
that they made available

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for people to have their
wells. Redrilled the

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problem is when those Re
drills were done, they

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still had PFAs in their
water, which made their

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water undrinkable. Some of
them came up, still had

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PFAs, but it was below the
level. So the second area

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secondary treatment on that
is to put in a water

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treatment system in your
home. It's, it's we don't

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want or I, I, I feel like
we don't want a kitchen

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faucet treatment. We want a
whole house treatment

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system. Because if you're
only getting your drinking

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water from your kitchen
sink, it's very hard to

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brush teeth. It's very hard
to, you know, take showers.

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It's it makes it much more
difficult. So that's why a

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whole house system would be
important. And those are

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expensive. So again, money
for that would be a

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blessing.
>> Why not jump right to

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the whole house system
instead of going through

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drilling new wells or
deeper wells?

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>> Well, I think that if
they can get clean water

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and they can get a, a well
that works, that's a much

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longer term solution. And
also it's, it's not it's

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not going to be any more of
a great cost on the

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residents. The whole home
treatments require filters.

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Those filters run 300 to
$500. They recommend you

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change those quarterly.
There's two filters. So

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that's $1,000 each time
they have to change the

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filter. So that's roughly
4000 a year. That's very,

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very rough on our on our
families out here. We're

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not a rich community. We're
not vacation homes. We're

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farmers. We're ranchers.
We're small, you know,

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we're we're blue collar
people.

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>> So we've reported on
this, but what is the known

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source of the PFAs in your
community?

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>> Well, it's definitely
there is a lot of

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information that points to
the paper mills, the sludge

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from the paper mills. And
I'm not sure if you know

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how that works. And I won't
go into great detail on

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that. But when they wash
the paper, all of that

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water gets collected. All
the stuff that comes off

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the paper gets collected.
And it was looked at back

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in the 60s and 70s as a
very, very high nutrient

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rich fertilizer. So they
spread it on the fields out

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here for years and years
and years. The property

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that I own, they spread it
clear back into mid 70s, I

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think up until probably the
time we bought the land.

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And so paper mill has been
a big part of that. And the

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paper mill here made
microwave popcorn bags.

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Those bags are lined, were
lined with PFAs to keep

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them from leaking, to keep
the butter and the oil

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inside it from leaking out.
And that's where the

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majority of the PFAs came
from when they were

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treating those microwave
popcorn bags. That's what

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we've been told. That's
what the history shows. And

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that, of course, is what
the DNR pointed to in their

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announcement of a linked
source. But the paper mill

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Ahlstrom, who is like the
third owner, I think since

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I've lived here in the last
20 years, they have stepped

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forward and they are
providing some drinking

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water to families that are
have concerns. The problem

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with that is it's not a
solution.

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>> Well, we will keep
watching the situation