Wisconsin's PFAS Trust Fund Finally Opens: Cycle A Puts $2M on the Table First-Come, First-Served. What Towns, Counties and Tribes Should File Before April 30, 2027

Wisconsin's $125 million PFAS Trust Fund was approved in the 2023-25 state budget. It then sat unspent for more than two years while the Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers fought over who controlled it. On October 20, 2026, Evers and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the first grant programs paid for by that fund. Applications for the first one, the PFAS Community Grants Sampling Program, opened on October 19.

The first round, called Cycle A, is small. It offers $2 million in three categories, against a $79 million statutory allocation for community grants. Grants are not scored against each other. DNR executes grant agreements in the order complete applications are received, until the money runs out or the cycle closes on April 30, 2027. A municipality with a well-defined sampling area should file a complete application early, because a strong proposal submitted in March may find nothing left.

What Cycle A funds

The Cycle A guidance divides the $2 million into three pools:

DNR estimates that Cycle A will pay for sampling at more than 1,200 homes, child care facilities and schools. The guidance sets no maximum award and no maximum per-sample cost. Costs only have to be "reasonable" and based on current lab rates. DNR recommends at least 25 private residences, or at least one school or child care facility, per application. Eligible applicants may submit more than one application per cycle and may apply in multiple cycles.

DNR says Cycle B will open "as soon as possible" after Cycle A closes, with more money and a wider list of eligible projects. The statute already authorizes sampling of high-capacity irrigation wells and agricultural soil (s. 292.74(2)(e)) and of landfill leachate, groundwater and nearby private wells at municipal landfills (s. 292.74(2)(g)). The governor's office expects programs for irrigation wells, farm fields, landfill leachate and public airports in 2027.

Where the money comes from, and why it took so long

The Trust Fund was created in the 2023-25 budget. Republican legislators on the Joint Committee on Finance kept DNR from spending it for more than two years and removed Evers' PFAS proposals from the 2025-27 budget. The deadlock ended with 2025 Wisconsin Acts 200 and 201, written by Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Gillett) and signed on April 6, 2026. The acts direct the money as follows:

• $79 million to the PFAS Community Grants programs, including this Sampling Program and the later cycles
• $10 million to the Wisconsin PFAS Private Well Testing Program (WisPPWT), which mails free home sampling kits to well owners outside municipal sampling programs
• $35 million to an expanded Well Compensation Grant Program, which helps eligible owners install treatment, drill a new well or connect to public water

The fund earned interest while frozen. Wisconsin Public Radio reports it had grown to about $134 million by the end of June 2026. The state also received a roughly $10 million payment in June 2026 from its settlement in State v. Tyco Fire Products LP over firefighting-foam contamination in Marinette and Peshtigo. That money is being used separately for residents there.

The standards have moved as well. In March 2026, Evers approved lowering the state's drinking-water threshold for PFOA and PFOS from 70 parts per trillion to an enforceable 4.0 ppt, matching the federal maximum contaminant levels. The Natural Resources Board is scheduled to vote on proposed PFAS groundwater standards next week. Groundwater standards are what private-well results will eventually be judged against. For now, the grant program uses the Department of Health Services' drinking water health advisory levels for 17 PFAS compounds. The strictest are 4 ng/L for PFOA, PFOS, FOSA, NEtFOSA, NEtFOSAA and NEtFOSE, and 10 ng/L for PFNA, PFHxS and GenX.

Who can apply, and who cannot

Only "municipalities" as defined in s. 292.74(1)(c) may apply: cities, villages, towns, counties, tribal governing bodies, utility districts, lake protection districts, sewerage districts and technical college districts. Private well owners, homeowners' associations, nonprofits and private schools cannot apply on their own. They need a municipal sponsor. If no municipality is running a program in their area, households can request a free WisPPWT kit instead.

Lake protection districts and sanitary or utility districts in unsewered lake country are on the list. These small special-purpose governments often know exactly which shoreline homes are on shallow private wells. For a district already doing lake sampling, a private-well application can be a natural next project.

There are several eligibility traps:

• Municipal public water supplies are ineligible. Systems already sample under the Safe Drinking Water Act. A municipality that finds PFAS in its public system is directed to DNR's existing infrastructure programs.
• Private wells on properties served by a municipal water system are ineligible.
• Schools and child care facilities already required to test under s. 281.17(8)(a), usually because they operate their own regulated public water system, cannot be included. Confirm each facility's status before listing it. One ineligible site can delay the application while it is corrected, and in a first-come queue a delay costs you your place.
• Only the 17 recoverable PFAS in the program's Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) are reimbursable. Add-on parameters such as nitrates or bacteria cannot be charged to the grant.

The 20% match is easier than it looks

Section 292.74(6) requires a match of at least 20% of the DNR award, not 20% of the total project. DNR gives two ways to calculate it. If the total project costs $12,000, the maximum grant is $12,000 ÷ 1.20 = $10,000 and the match is $2,000. If you request $64,500, the match is $12,900 and the total project is $77,400.

The match does not have to be cash. Eligible match includes in-kind contributions, municipal staff time (force account), volunteer labor, donated equipment and outside cash donations. Administrative costs, such as project planning, owner outreach, results letters and sourcing bottled water, can either count toward the match or be reimbursed as grant expenses. For most towns, the clerk's and public works staff's hours spent recruiting households and distributing kits will cover a large share of the match. Track those hours from the start using DNR's force account form (8700-352) and donated volunteer labor form (8700-349).

Two features that set this program apart

1. You must plan for what happens after you test. A well-sampling applicant must submit a Post-Sampling Action Plan describing how it will respond when a well exceeds a health advisory level. The plan must be ready to run for at least six months. Acceptable responses are bottled water that has been purified or filtered, a treatment system certified to ANSI/NSF Standard 53 or 58 for PFAS reduction, or another tested source below DHS advisories. DNR may extend funding past six months. Owners are not required to accept the offer. DNR recommends putting the response options directly in the results letter so exposure can stop immediately.

The design reflects what happened in French Island, the former Town of Campbell, near the La Crosse Regional Airport. More than 500 private wells were sampled there, and nearly a third showed levels of concern to state health officials. A municipality that samples 100 homes in a known contamination area should plan for dozens of households needing water for months. At that point the $500,000 response pool, shared statewide, may run out before the $1 million sampling pool does. Budget the response phase as carefully as the sampling phase, and ask for it in the same application.

2. Wastewater sampling also helps with permits. In the $500,000 wastewater and biosolids pool, sampling required by a facility's WPDES permit is eligible. A treatment plant can therefore use the grant for PFAS monitoring it already has to do, plus collection-system sampling at interceptors to trace PFAS back to industrial sources. Labs must use EPA Method 1633A, and results go into DNR Switchboard. For a plant that land-applies biosolids and faces rising pressure from PFAS limits on land application, this is low-cost source-reduction work. Larger sewerage districts should treat it as a priority.

The fine print on reimbursement

The program pays only after you spend:

• Reimbursement requests may be filed no more than once every three months during the grant period, and the final request is due within 90 days after the period ends.
• Sampling results must be reported before sampling costs are reimbursed. Drinking water and wastewater results are due within 60 days of finishing sampling, and post-sampling reports within 60 days of finishing that work.
• The lab must be DNR-certified for PFAS under ch. NR 149. Samples must follow the QAPP's holding times: extraction within seven days if stored at 0–6 °C, or 90 days if frozen. If you skip the QAPP, DNR may delay, reduce or deny reimbursement. If you use a method other than 1633A, lab costs are not reimbursed at all.

Small towns without cash reserves need to plan for the gap between paying the lab and getting reimbursed. A short-term borrowing resolution or a county partnership may be needed.

Strategy: how to get funded in Cycle A

File early with a complete application. The program funds complete applications in the order received, and DNR takes up to four weeks just to determine whether an application is complete. An application with a missing resolution goes back to the end of the line once it is fixed. Before submitting, gather the Grant Project Resolution (Form 8700-388), the correct application form (8700-400DG for drinking water, 8700-400WY for wastewater), the supplemental Excel workbook, and the municipal notification template in Appendix B if you plan to sample inside another jurisdiction.

Pass the needed resolution at your next regular meeting. Most towns and village boards meet monthly. The 8700-388 resolution and any match appropriation should be adopted in November or December, not in March.

Define the sampling area. Applications built around a documented reason for concern are easier to run and to defend. Examples include proximity to an airport, fire training site, landfill, paper mill or biosolids land-application field, or a cluster of wells with early detections. For counties, one countywide application with neighborhood phases can reach the 25-home minimum in several places at once.

Consider splitting the application. Because applicants can file more than once per cycle, a county could file a ready-to-go private-well application now and a wastewater or school application later, rather than waiting until every part is ready.

Line up the follow-on funding now. Sampling is the first step in a longer process. Homes with exceedances will become candidates for the expanded $35 million Well Compensation Grant Program. If sampling shows contamination is widespread, a community may make the case for extending public water to the affected area, which falls under DNR's existing infrastructure programs. Sampling data collected under the QAPP is documented evidence you can reuse in later cycles and in other applications. On the federal side, EPA's Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities grants and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund's emerging-contaminant money cover public systems. For comparison, New York's state grants for PFAS treatment pay up to 70% of eligible costs, as covered in our analysis of the 2026 WIIA round.

Expect demand to exceed the money. Cycle A's $2 million is about 2.5% of the $79 million allocation. That makes it a pilot that lets DNR see how quickly municipalities apply before it opens larger cycles. If the money is gone before April, apply anyway or be ready for Cycle B with an application that already passed DNR's completeness review. Being in DNR's system with a reviewed application is the strongest starting position for Cycle B.

DNR has said application webinars for the drinking water and wastewater tracks are "coming soon." Questions go to DNRPFASGrants@wisconsin.gov. For a first-come program, ask your questions before you file.

If your town, county, tribe or sewerage district is preparing a PFAS Sampling Program application, including the sampling plan, post-sampling action plan and match budget, Granted can help you draft it and check it against DNR's Cycle A guidance.