Wisconsin settles $10M PFAS lawsuit against Tyco

MARINETTE — The state Department of Justice reached a $10 million settlement with a Marinette company over its use of PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” that made their way into local water sources and private wells across the area.

Attorney General Josh Kaul announced June 4 that the department reached the agreement with Tyco Fire Products at a press conference in Marinette. The contamination stemming from Tyco is the largest PFAS contamination in the state.

The $10 million will be placed into the PFAS Trust Fund, which can be used to address PFAS contamination. Kaul said the money will be used particularly to address issues in the Marinette and Peshtigo area.

The company will also continue to provide funding for replacement wells for residents in Marinette and Peshtigo, conduct required monitoring and implement other remediation in the area as needed.

“Reliable access to safe and clean water is critical for strong communities and people’s health and peace of mind,” Kaul said in a media release. “This resolution is a major step on the path toward a more secure future for folks in the Marinette area.”

Gov. Tony Evers said the settlement has “been a long time coming,” especially for residents who have been fighting the contamination for years.

“Today is a historic and important milestone in our fight to make sure every Wisconsinite has access to clean and safe drinking water, whether they live in Marinette or Stella or on French Island or anywhere in between. Every Wisconsinite should be able to trust the water coming from their tap,” he said in a release.

“We’ve worked to lead the fight against PFAS from Day One of my administration, and today’s a key step toward making sure polluters are held accountable, take responsibility for their actions, and ensure Wisconsinites don’t have to foot the bill for cleaning up the messes that others made.”

In a statement, Johnson Controls, which owns Tyco, celebrated the settlement.

“Since 2017, we have invested significantly in long-term solutions including providing deep wells for clean, sustainable drinking water for our neighbors. In addition, our state-of-the-art groundwater extraction and treatment system has already treated hundreds of millions of gallons of water and will continue to return clean, safe water to the environment,” a spokesperson said in an email.

“We’ve been part of the Marinette community for over 100 years and the spirit of doing what is best for our neighbors and the environment will continue to be our priority.”

Kaul filed the civil suit against Tyco in 2022 after years of investigation by the department. The case was set for a three-week jury trial, but the company instead decided to seek a settlement.

According to the lawsuit, Tyco Fire Products knowingly violated the state’s Spills Law when it failed for years to notify the state Department of Natural Resources about discharges of toxic PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” and failed to take action to clean up the contamination.

The company tested firefighting foam containing PFAS outdoors from 1962 until ending the practice in 2017. The foam ended up on the soil surrounding the company’s fire training center, as well as in the Marinette sewer system.

When the foam washed into drains or other soil near the testing pad, it spread PFAS into the soil, groundwater and wastewater, which carried the chemicals across the area.

The lawsuit alleged that Tyco knew its property had elevated levels of PFAS in the soil and water in 2013, when the company conducted testing after its plant in Germany was tested.

The results of those tests showed concentrations of more than 400 parts per trillion of PFOA and more than 5,000 parts per trillion of PFOS, two PFAS compounds. The highest concentration found in groundwater samples at the time was 254,000 parts per trillion. Soil tested at 122,000 parts per trillion.

Tyco did not notify the DNR about the results but continued sampling in 2014, 2016 and most of 2017, the DOJ alleges. All results showed extremely elevated levels of PFAS in the soil and water on the property.

The company did not notify the DNR of the results until November 2017 and did not submit a notification for a hazardous substance discharge to the agency until January 2018, the DOJ alleges.

Between 2013 and 2017 the company took no action to halt PFAS from flowing into the environment, nor did it take action to determine how large the plume of contamination was, or to clean up existing contamination, the DOJ alleges.

After notifying the DNR about the contamination in 2017, Tyco has taken steps to remediate the problem. Residents were given filtration systems for their homes, and some chose to dig new wells at the expense of the company.

Tyco has also installed a groundwater filtration system, which is able to pull water from the ground, filter it and return it.

The DOJ lawsuit is not the only one Tyco has faced since the contamination information was shared with the state and residents. In 2024, Tyco settled a lawsuit filed by local water systems for $750 million. In 2021, it also settled a lawsuit with 270 households in Peshtigo over the contamination for $17.5 million.

While residents were happy to see a settlement reached between the state and Tyco, they were also disappointed by some provisions included in the settlement.

In particular, they criticized the exclusion of an expanded investigation area established in recent years by the Department of Natural Resources.

Outside of a 10-mile radius, the department required Tyco to conduct additional investigations of wells and other water sources, though the company has routinely pushed back against including the area.

That means residents there, roughly 80 homes, have not had the same access to bottled water or other solutions provided by Tyco.

“Those people, who have known contamination in their wells, the stipulation says ‘Tyco, you’re off the hook,'” said Doug Oitzinger, the former mayor of Marinette. “The $10 million the DNR said should help cover bottled water – we don’t think that’s adequate, and those folks have kind of been abandoned in a way.”

Oitzinger said he wasn’t trying to take away from the hard work the DOJ put into this case.

“It’s underwhelming,” Oitzinger said of the settlement.

Cindy Boyle, a Peshtigo resident who has a tainted well, said it was disappointing that the expanded investigation area wasn’t included.

She was also disappointed that the potential health risks to the community weren’t included in the settlement. PFAS has been linked to types of cancer.

“I find lacking that there’s still no health monitoring. I think that would have been a really valuable thing to try to build in,” Boyle said. “I know Tyco certainly wouldn’t want it, but for those of us who actually live with the health consequences, I think that would have been something that should have been undeniable.”

Oitzinger said there’s a certain level of feeling like Tyco got away with contaminating the community.

“Where’s the moral obligation here being acknowledged? They talk about all the money [Tyco] spent cleaning this up,” he said. “Well, I’ve got news for you, it’s a forever chemical, it’s a forever problem, and you are not off the hook, and you are certainly not off the hook morally.”