WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) — Students in the Wausau School District will be allowed to bring bottled water to class in most district buildings after it was discovered that the city’s drinking water contains PFAS.
The announcement comes after the discovery of PFAS levels that exceeded proposed standards being put forward by the Wisconsin DNR, but that remains under the current standards in place from the EPA.
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Students who attend Rib Mountain, Maine, and Hewitt-Texas Elementary schools are not impacted by Wednesday’s news. Their water comes from sources other than Wausau Water Works.
The district also assured parents that the news doesn’t impact the foodservice program. All school kitchens have systems in place that mitigate PFAS.
Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg assured residents that the water supply remains safe, but the utility’s goal is to get the level of contaminants down to under 20 Parts Per Trillion (PPT), which is the currently proposed state standard. She will call special meetings in the next week for both the Water Works Commission, which she chairs, and City Council, to discuss the issue.
