Clean water and PFAS: Wisconsin U.S. House District 3

Campaign positions

What each campaign says.

Derrick Van Orden

Says he has secured millions for western Wisconsin drinking water free of contaminants, and $350 million to move firefighting foams off PFAS.

Van Orden for Congress

Would work with regional stakeholders to “rapidly address the PFAS issue in our water — including more testing, remediation and research”, and build coalitions with farmers on run-off affecting waterways.

Cooke for Congress

Alexander Valiensi Kent

No position on water quality is stated.

Voter Directed Network Voter Directed Network

Rustin Levem Provance

No position on water quality is stated. His platform does address the environment, on the long-term effects of nuclear testing, which is a different subject.

Rustin Provance for Congress

Evidence timeline

Where statements meet the record.

Occurred May 16, 2024
official action
Derrick Van Orden: Matches stated record claim
His campaign says he has secured $350 million to transition firefighting foams away from PFAS to safer alternatives. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 authorises “not more than $350,000,000 to carry out the PFAS replacement program”, which reimburses certificated airports for moving to approved fluorine-free firefighting foams at a 100 percent federal share. He voted Yea on House passage on July 20, 2023, which carried 351-69, and Yea on final passage on May 15, 2024, which carried 387-26. It became Public Law 118-63 the next day. Limit: The figure is an authorisation ceiling — the most that may later be appropriated — rather than money appropriated. The programme is national and applies to airports holding a part 139 certificate, not specifically to Wisconsin. He was one of 387 members voting for it. The same $350,000,000 figure appears beside PFAS language in nine other public laws, all of them enacted before he took office on January 3, 2023, and none of those can be the one he means.
Van Orden for Congress U.S. Government Publishing Office Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives
Occurred Mar 4, 2024
official action
Derrick Van Orden: Matches stated record claim
His campaign says he has secured millions in funding to provide western Wisconsin with drinking water that is safe from contaminants. The final FY2024 Interior funding tables list the City of Eau Claire Water Treatment Project at $2,000,000 and the Town of Campbell Water Utility Project at $2,000,000, each naming Van Orden in the House requester column, alongside a third Wisconsin drinking-water project at $800,000 requested by him. His congressional office had announced the first two as requests in November 2023. Limit: The tables establish that the money was appropriated and that he was the member who requested it. They do not establish that the water is now free of contaminants: an appropriation is not a finished treatment plant, and no source here shows when either project was built or what it delivered. This desk first published this card with no verdict, saying the settling evidence was not published anywhere it could cite. That was wrong. Community project funding is listed in the joint explanatory statement rather than in the law, and the statute and the Congressional Record were searched while the explanatory statement was not.
Van Orden for Congress U.S. House of Representatives Office of Rep. Derrick Van Orden