Property owners with contaminated land push for `innocent buyer` bill to relieve them of environmental responsibility

MADISON - Wisconsin residents battling contamination on their properties they didn`t cause are asking legislators to pass a bill that would shift the responsibility elsewhere, relieving them of the burden of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs. 

Property owners shared their experiences Wednesday with the Assembly Committee on the Environment in support of legislation that would potentially absolve responsibility for contamination not caused by the owner if the building was purchased before 1992. 

But a representative of the state Department of Natural Resources said the bill could end up causing more issues in the long run...

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Ken Notes: This is a very complex issue. We need an environmental assessment before sale on all properties and a super-fund to deal with deal with complex problems. The DNR is not staffed or funded to handle this so it is complicated. The commercial world has been dealing with this for decades and does not have great answers so private homeowners are in truly uncharted territory.

The DNR, may need to amend the legislation but a solution is needed. With new PFAS and phosphorus finding any piece of land anywhere could be "contaminated" and the more we look the more we will find.