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Board places 2025 Consumer Confidence Report on file; staff holds full water rate case pending PFAS loan decisions
Summary
City staff said the 2025 Consumer Confidence Report shows compliance with current health standards, ongoing PFAS sampling and upcoming copper/lead retesting. The board placed the report on file and staff said they will delay a full conventional water rate case until PFAS loan/grant forgiveness outcomes are clear.
The Onalaska Board of Public Works on July 7 accepted the city’s 2025 Consumer Confidence Report and heard a status update on water‑rate planning tied to PFAS cleanup grant and safe drinking water loan outcomes.
Staff reported the city met current public health standards. Jared Holter said copper and lead sampling is performed every three years (last sampled in 2023) and that new copper/lead results are pending. He also said the department had completed most PFAS sampling in 2025 and continues to sample four PFAS compounds; staff are designing a PFAS removal system for Well No. 9 and cautioned that a proposed future PFAS limit could lead to exceedances at that well.
"We did meet all current health standards as outlined in the consumer confidence report," Holter said. The board voted to place the report on file.
Ald. Sabrina Steger briefed the board on the city's rate‑case strategy: the Public Service Commission would not accept a simplified rate case simultaneously with an application to add a public fire protection charge, so the city withdrew the simplified filing and implemented the fire protection charge (effective in the second‑quarter bill). Because the safe drinking water loan and potential loan forgiveness affect debt coverage and rate modeling, staff said they are holding a conventional water rate case submission until the city learns how much loan forgiveness or grant the PFAS project will receive. "We're really in a holding pattern... once we get the safe drinking water approved loan list and see where we score compared to projects that were actually submitted," Steger said.
Staff told the board they have engaged auditors and consultants to assist with a full rate case and expect to decide on filing later in 2026 or early 2027, depending on loan and grant outcomes.
