Peshtigo, Wisconsin PFAS Water Contamination Lawsuit: What “Forever Chemicals” Did to Your Family’s Water
You are reading this at a kitchen table in Peshtigo, or maybe in a hospital waiting room in Green Bay, or maybe from a relative’s house two states away because you moved and never knew why you got sick until someone said the word PFAS out loud. You drank the water. You cooked with it. You made coffee with it every morning for years. And now there is a diagnosis — kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis — and a question sitting in your chest that will not leave: was it the water?
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that takes toxic tort cases in Wisconsin, and we are writing this page for one person: the Peshtigo resident, former resident, or family member who just learned that “forever chemicals” were in the water they drank, and who needs to know — right now, tonight — what that means for their health, their legal rights, and the clock that is already running on both.
Here is the first thing you need to hear: this is not random. The contamination of Peshtigo’s private drinking water wells with PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the synthetic chemicals used in firefighting foam and industrial manufacturing — produced a $17.5 million class action settlement for this community. That settlement addressed the wells. Your cancer, your thyroid disease, your ulcerative colitis — that is a separate fight, and it is one the manufacturers know is coming because they have already paid more than $12 billion across the country to resolve PFAS contamination claims. The question is whether your claim is filed before the evidence disappears and before the statute of limitations closes the door.
“At least 45% of the nation’s tap water is estimated to have one or more types of the chemicals known as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS.”
— United States Geological Survey (USGS)
That is not our statistic. That is the federal government’s own survey of what is coming out of American taps. Peshtigo is not an outlier — it is a named, documented, settled example of a crisis that reaches into every state. And the companies that made these chemicals knew, for decades, what they were putting into the water.
What PFAS Are and Why They Are Called “Forever Chemicals”
PFAS are a family of synthetic chemicals engineered for one purpose: to resist heat, water, oil, and stains. They are the reason your nonstick pan does not stick, the reason your rain jacket sheds water, and — critically for Peshtigo — the reason firefighting foam can smother a fuel fire in seconds. The chemistry that makes them so useful in industry is the same chemistry that makes them indestructible in the environment and in your body. The carbon-fluorine bond — one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry — does not break down. Not in soil, not in water, not in your liver, not in your kidneys, not over years, not over decades. That is why they are called “forever chemicals.” Once they enter your body through drinking water, they accumulate. They build up in your blood serum, your liver, your kidneys. They do not leave.
The federal government recognized this danger in April 2024, when the EPA established the first national drinking water standards for PFAS. The legal limit for PFOA and PFOS — the two most-studied PFAS compounds — was set at 4.0 parts per trillion. That is roughly four drops of contamination in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The EPA’s health-based goal — the level at which there is no known health risk — was set at zero. Zero. The federal government’s own scientists concluded there is no amount of these chemicals in your drinking water that carries no risk.
And in May 2026, the EPA proposed rolling back parts of that standard — delaying the compliance deadline from 2029 to 2031 and proposing to rescind federal limits on additional PFAS compounds. That rollback, if finalized, would leave communities like Peshtigo with weaker federal protection for longer. It does not change the science. It does not change what is already in your blood. And it does not change the manufacturers’ liability for having put it there.
The Cancers and Diseases Linked to PFAS in Drinking Water
The science connecting PFAS to human disease is not new, and it is not speculative. The C8 Science Panel — a team of independent epidemiologists who studied the health effects of PFOA contamination in the Mid-Ohio Valley for nearly a decade — found a “probable link” between PFOA and six health conditions. That finding is the scientific backbone of PFAS personal injury litigation nationwide.
The diseases and conditions linked to PFAS exposure through contaminated drinking water include:
Kidney cancer. PFAS accumulate in the kidneys — the organs responsible for filtering your blood. The C8 Science Panel found a probable link between PFOA and kidney cancer, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified PFOA as a Group 1 carcinogen in 2024 — its highest category, reserved for substances proven to cause cancer in humans. Kidney cancer from PFAS exposure can require a nephrectomy — surgical removal of all or part of the kidney — followed by ongoing surveillance for metastasis and recurrence.
Testicular cancer. The C8 Science Panel found a probable link between PFOA and testicular cancer. This is a cancer that disproportionately strikes young men, often in their twenties and thirties. Treatment can involve orchiectomy — removal of the affected testicle — chemotherapy, and lifelong surveillance. The link between PFAS and testicular cancer is one of the strongest in the PFAS disease literature.
Thyroid cancer. PFAS are known endocrine disruptors — they interfere with the hormonal systems the thyroid regulates. The C8 panel found a probable link between PFOA and thyroid disease. Thyroid cancer treatment typically involves thyroidectomy — removal of the thyroid gland — followed by lifelong daily thyroid hormone replacement and, in some cases, radioactive iodine therapy.
Thyroid disease. Beyond cancer, PFAS exposure is linked to hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and Hashimoto’s disease — autoimmune thyroid conditions that require daily medication and ongoing medical management for the rest of a person’s life.
Ulcerative colitis. The C8 Science Panel found a probable link between PFOA and ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract. Treatment can involve immunosuppressive drugs, biologics, and in severe cases, surgical removal of the colon.
Liver cancer. Emerging evidence links PFAS exposure to liver cancer, consistent with the fact that PFAS accumulate in the liver and are known to cause liver toxicity and altered liver function.
If you or a loved one was diagnosed with any of these conditions after living in Peshtigo and drinking from a private well or a contaminated municipal water source, the connection between your diagnosis and the water may not be a coincidence. It may be a causal chain the manufacturers already knew about and hid.
Who Made These Chemicals and Who Knew the Danger
The PFAS contamination in Peshtigo’s water did not happen by accident. It happened because manufacturers produced, marketed, and sold products containing PFAS — particularly aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), the firefighting foam used at military bases, airports, industrial facilities, and fire training centers — while allegedly possessing internal knowledge of the health and environmental risks.
The companies that have been held accountable, through settlements and litigation, include:
3M Company. The primary manufacturer of PFAS chemicals and AFFF firefighting foam. 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement to resolve public water system contamination claims across the United States. The allegation: 3M possessed internal knowledge of PFAS health risks for decades — including evidence of bioaccumulation, carcinogenicity, and environmental persistence — while continuing to produce and sell these chemicals.
Tyco Fire Products. A Wisconsin-based AFFF manufacturer. Tyco reached a $750 million settlement to resolve AFFF and PFAS claims. The fact that one of the primary AFFF defendants is headquartered in Wisconsin creates a direct connection between the national PFAS crisis and this state. For Peshtigo residents, the proximity of a Wisconsin-based firefighting foam manufacturer to the contamination of private wells is not a coincidence — it is a geographic and causal link that strengthens the case.
DuPont de Nemours and successor entities (Chemours, Corteva). The historical PFAS manufacturer that allegedly concealed health and environmental risks. DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva jointly funded a $1.18 billion PFAS settlement. The corporate spin-off structure — DuPont spinning off Chemours in 2015 to hold legacy PFAS liability — is the kind of corporate shell maneuver we see in mass tort litigation, designed to distance the parent from the consequences of what it made.
BASF Corporation. A PFAS manufacturer that reached a $316 million settlement to resolve contamination claims.
Carrier Global / Kidde-Fenwal subsidiary. An AFFF and fire suppression product manufacturer that reached a $730 million settlement.
The theories of liability against these manufacturers include failure to warn — they knew or should have known of the health risks and failed to warn the public, municipalities, or consumers; design defect — PFAS-containing products were unreasonably dangerous because safer alternatives were technologically feasible; fraudulent concealment — manufacturers allegedly suppressed internal toxicological findings, funded misleading research, and coordinated industry efforts to downplay PFAS health risks; and trespass — PFAS chemicals migrated from application sites and manufacturing facilities onto private property and into private water sources without property owners’ consent.
The fraudulent concealment theory is the engine of punitive damages in PFAS litigation. When a manufacturer studies a chemical, discovers it causes cancer, buries the study, and keeps selling the chemical for decades, that is not negligence. That is a choice. And juries have shown they understand the difference.
How PFAS Got Into Peshtigo’s Water
Peshtigo sits on the Peshtigo River in Marinette County, about 45 minutes north of Green Bay. It is a small community — roughly 3,500 people — where the river, the lake, and the groundwater are not abstractions. They are the water you drink, the fish you catch, the land you live on. When PFAS entered the groundwater here, it entered the private wells that families depended on for their daily drinking water.
The contamination pathway for PFAS in communities like Peshtigo is well-documented: firefighting foam — AFFF — used at industrial sites, fire training facilities, or nearby manufacturing operations seeps into the soil and reaches the groundwater. The chemicals do not degrade. They move with the water table. They reach private wells. And they accumulate in the bodies of the people who drink from them.
The $17.5 million class action settlement reached by Peshtigo residents addressed the contamination of private drinking water wells. That settlement was about the wells — the property damage, the loss of a safe water source, the cost of remediation and alternative water supply. It was not about the cancers. It was not about the thyroid disease. It was not about the ulcerative colitis. Those are individual personal injury claims, and they are a separate legal track.
This distinction matters more than any other fact on this page: the water-contamination settlement and your individual injury claim are not the same thing. A resident who received compensation through the private well settlement may still have a separate, independent claim for personal injury if they have been diagnosed with a PFAS-related disease. The settlement of the water claim does not automatically settle the cancer claim. If you signed a release in connection with the well settlement, the scope of that release — what it covers and what it does not — is one of the first things we examine.
Wisconsin Law and Your PFAS Claim: The Clock, the Rule, the Recovery
Wisconsin’s legal framework for toxic tort claims — including PFAS water contamination — provides several pathways to recovery, but the clock is the thing that kills cases. Here is what you need to know.
The statute of limitations. Wisconsin generally gives you three years to file a personal injury lawsuit from the date the cause of action accrues. For a wrongful death claim, the deadline is also generally three years from the date of death. But here is the critical question in every PFAS case: when does the clock start? For a disease that hides for years or decades after exposure, the answer is not the day you were exposed to contaminated water. In most states, including Wisconsin, the discovery rule can apply to latent disease cases — meaning the clock may not start ticking until you knew, or reasonably should have known, that your illness was connected to PFAS exposure. For many people, that connection becomes clear only at the moment of diagnosis, or when a doctor or public health notice links their condition to the water.
That distinction — exposure versus discovery — is the single most contested issue in PFAS statute-of-limitations law. The manufacturers will argue the clock started years ago. We argue it started when you learned the water caused the disease. Because PFAS-related diseases have latency periods measured in years and decades, the legal clock may have started at diagnosis rather than at exposure. But varying state deadlines mean some otherwise-valid claims may already be time-barred if action is delayed. You cannot afford to wait.
Wisconsin’s comparative negligence rule. Wisconsin follows a modified comparative negligence system. Your own share of fault reduces your recovery, and if you are found to be 51 percent or more at fault, you are barred from recovering anything. In a PFAS case, the defense may try to argue that you contributed to your own illness — by smoking, by other lifestyle factors, by failing to install a water filter. Every point of fault they pin on you is money. But the core of a PFAS claim is not about what you did. It is about what the manufacturers did: they made the chemicals, they knew the risks, they hid the science, and they contaminated the water. The eggshell-plaintiff doctrine — a defendant takes the victim as found — means your pre-existing conditions or vulnerabilities do not reduce the manufacturer’s responsibility for the harm its chemicals caused.
The multidistrict litigation. The federal MDL consolidating AFFF and PFAS personal injury and water provider claims is pending in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. Pretrial proceedings, bellwether discovery, and global settlement negotiations are centralized there. Individual personal injury claims — your claim, if you have been diagnosed with a PFAS-related cancer — are typically filed into the MDL and then resolved through settlement frameworks or claims administration facilities that allocate compensation by injury tier, exposure category, and defendant participation level. This is not a traditional lawsuit where you walk into a courtroom and a jury hears your story. It is a mass tort resolution process — but it is one where the strength of your individual evidence, your exposure documentation, and your medical records determines what tier you fall into and what your claim is worth.
Punitive damages. The documented pattern of manufacturer concealment of PFAS health risk data — internal studies suppressed, unfavorable research buried, industry coordination to delay regulatory action — supports a knowing and reckless disregard for consumer safety. Punitive damages are a central feature of PFAS litigation. Whether they are available, and in what amount, depends on the specific jurisdiction and the specific defendant’s settlement program. But the conduct that supports them — decades of concealment while people drank contaminated water and developed cancer — is the most powerful narrative in these cases.
The EPA Regulatory Battle and Why It Creates Urgency
The EPA’s April 2024 National Primary Drinking Water Regulation was a watershed moment. For the first time, the federal government established enforceable maximum contaminant levels for PFAS in public water systems: 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, with health-based goals set at zero. The compliance deadline was set for 2029.
Then, in May 2026, the EPA proposed rolling back key parts of that standard. The proposed rollback would delay the compliance deadline from 2029 to 2031, rescind federal limits on additional PFAS compounds, and eliminate the combined hazard index standard. Environmental groups and public health experts raised serious concerns, warning that the rollback could leave communities at risk for years longer.
For your legal case, the regulatory rollback creates urgency in three ways. First, it may limit the availability of water testing data — if federal compliance deadlines are pushed back, some water systems may reduce their monitoring, and historical sampling data could become harder to obtain. Second, it underscores that the federal regulatory floor is not a guarantee of safety — the law is political and can change, which is why your legal claim, not the regulatory regime, is your real protection. Third, the rollback itself is evidence of the ongoing nature of the harm — the contamination is still there, the standards are weakening, and the manufacturers’ lobbying power is still working to delay accountability.
The CERCLA designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances — effective July 2024 — adds another layer. Any entity that releases a pound or more of PFOA or PFOS in a 24-hour period must report that release to the National Response Center. That reporting requirement creates a paper trail of contamination events that can be used to prove the source and timing of the pollution that reached your water.
What Your PFAS Case Is Worth
Individual PFAS personal injury claim values depend on several factors: the specific disease diagnosed, the duration and intensity of exposure, the documented contamination of your water source, your age at diagnosis, and the specific defendant’s settlement program.
The multi-billion-dollar settlements reported — 3M at $10.3 billion, DuPont/Chemours/Corteva at $1.18 billion, Tyco at $750 million, BASF at $316 million, Carrier/Kidde-Fenwal at $730 million — primarily address public water system remediation and provider claims. Individual personal injury compensation is allocated through separate settlement grids or claims administration facilities. You should understand this clearly: those headline numbers are not a per-person payout. They are a pool, and individual claims are paid from that pool according to a tiered framework.
Within those frameworks, cancer diagnoses — kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, liver cancer — represent the highest-tier claims. Thyroid disease and ulcerative colitis typically settle at materially lower tiers. Wrongful death claims — for individuals who succumbed to PFAS-related cancers — may carry premium value depending on the decedent’s age, earning capacity, dependents, and applicable state wrongful death damage rules.
Individual claim values can range from approximately $50,000 at the low end to $1,000,000 or more at the high end, depending on the injury tier and the strength of the exposure and causation evidence. These are not guarantees — they are the observed range of the settlement frameworks as they have been structured. Your specific claim value depends on your specific facts.
The damages that a PFAS personal injury claim can seek include past and future medical expenses — for cancer treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, radioactive iodine, lifelong thyroid hormone replacement, immunosuppressive drugs, and ongoing surveillance for recurrence; lost wages and diminished earning capacity; the costs of lifelong medical monitoring for PFAS body burden surveillance; physical pain and suffering; emotional distress from a cancer diagnosis attributable to corporate misconduct; loss of quality of life; and the anxiety of living with elevated risk of disease recurrence or secondary malignancy. For wrongful death claims, the damages include the decedent’s conscious pain and suffering, loss of financial support, loss of companionship, and funeral expenses.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. But the settlement frameworks exist, the money has been funded, and the question is whether your claim is submitted with the evidence to place it in the right tier.
The Evidence Clock: What Proof Exists and How Fast It Disappears
PFAS cases are won or lost on evidence that has a shelf life. Every category of proof you need is on a clock — some fast, some slow, all ticking. Here is what exists, who holds it, and how fast it can legally die.
Blood serum PFAS testing. This is the single most important piece of evidence in your case. A blood test measures the concentration of specific PFAS compounds in your serum — the liquid part of your blood. It establishes documented bioaccumulation: proof that these chemicals are in your body, at what levels, and in what forms. This is both a medical priority and an evidentiary necessity. Here is the clock: serum PFAS levels decline gradually after exposure ceases. If you have moved away from Peshtigo, switched water sources, or installed a filtration system, your serum levels are already dropping. The longer you wait to test, the lower the reading — and the harder it is to prove the dose you actually received. Testing should be undertaken promptly, ideally before any relocation or water-source change, to capture the highest defensible concentration.
Historical residential and employment records. To qualify for settlement framework eligibility, you must prove how long you lived in the contaminated area and when. Old lease records, property deeds, utility billing histories, school enrollment records, military housing assignments, and employer records establish the duration window for exposure. These records can be lost, destroyed, or archived beyond easy retrieval as time passes. Old utility records in particular may be purged after a set number of years. Secure these within months, not years.
Complete medical records from initial diagnosis forward. Your medical records document the diagnosis, treatment history, staging, prognosis, and the temporal relationship between your exposure and your disease onset. Pathology reports and oncology treatment records are essential for injury-tier classification. Medical providers may purge records after state-mandated retention periods expire. Obtain complete copies — including pathology slides, imaging, and treatment summaries — as soon as possible.
Water utility testing data and contamination reports. This confirms the presence and concentration of PFAS compounds in your drinking water source. Water system testing results are publicly available, but historical sampling data may be limited. EPA compliance reporting and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources records should be requested before regulatory rollback proposals limit data availability. The water testing data is what links the environmental exposure pathway to the manufacturer’s product — it is the bridge between the chemical and your body.
Military service and occupational exposure records. For firefighters and military personnel who used AFFF, these records document foam use, training frequency, deployment locations, and duration of service at contaminated installations. DD-214 forms, service treatment records, and unit assignment histories should be requested immediately. Military personnel records are retained by the National Personnel Records Center but may be partially inaccessible.
Corporate document discovery. The internal records of the manufacturers — establishing what they knew about PFAS health risks, when they knew it, and what they did to suppress the information — are the engine of punitive damages and fraudulent concealment theories. Much of this evidence has already been produced through the MDL, but additional defendant-specific documents may remain. This is not evidence you collect yourself — it is evidence produced through litigation. But its existence is what makes the case powerful.
The fastest-dying evidence is your blood serum level. Every month you wait, the number that proves your exposure dose gets smaller. The second-fastest is historical water testing data, which may become harder to obtain if the EPA rollback reduces monitoring requirements. The preservation letter — demanding that water systems, employers, and manufacturers freeze all relevant records — is one of the first things that goes out when you call us.
The Defense Playbook: What the Manufacturers’ Lawyers Will Try
The manufacturers and their insurers have a playbook. It is not personal. It is procedure. Here are the plays you should expect, and the counter to each.
Play 1: “The statute of limitations has already passed.” The defense will argue that the clock started when you were exposed to the water — years or decades ago — and that your claim is time-barred. The counter is the discovery rule: for latent diseases, the clock starts when you knew or should have known that your illness was connected to the PFAS exposure. For many people, that moment is the diagnosis, or the day a public health notice or news report connected their condition to the water. The defense will fight this hard, because if they win on the clock, they never have to fight on the science. This is exactly why acting early matters — the longer you wait, the stronger their argument that you should have known sooner.
Play 2: “Your cancer came from somewhere else.” PFAS-linked diseases — kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease — have multiple potential causes. The defense will argue your cancer was idiopathic, or caused by smoking, diet, genetics, or other environmental exposures. They will hire experts to testify that you cannot prove this specific cancer came from this specific exposure. The counter is dose reconstruction: your blood serum PFAS level, combined with documented water contamination data and your residential history, allows a toxicologist to estimate your cumulative exposure dose and compare it to the dose-response literature showing elevated cancer risk at your exposure level. The C8 Science Panel’s probable-link findings and the IARC Group 1 classification of PFOA provide the general causation foundation. Your specific serum level and water history provide the specific causation bridge.
Play 3: “You cannot prove which manufacturer caused it.” PFAS contamination often involves multiple sources and multiple manufacturers. The defense will argue that you cannot single out their client as the source of the chemicals in your water. The counter is the nature of PFAS litigation: the settlement frameworks allocate compensation across multiple defendants based on market share, production volume, and other factors. You do not have to prove that 3M’s specific PFAS molecules caused your specific cancer — you have to prove that PFAS from AFFF or industrial products contaminated your water and caused your disease, and the framework distributes the cost among the responsible manufacturers. This is the same principle that governs asbestos and other multi-source toxic tort cases.
Play 4: “The settlement already covered this.” If you received compensation through the Peshtigo private well settlement or any other water-contamination settlement, the defense may argue that your personal injury claim is barred by the prior release. The counter depends on the scope of the release you signed — what claims it covered and what it did not. Many water-contamination settlements specifically exclude personal injury claims, or are structured so that the release covers only property and water-supply claims. But this must be examined carefully, release by release, document by document. Do not assume the water settlement closed your cancer claim. And do not sign anything else without having a lawyer read it first. For guidance on what to say — and what not to say — to the other side, this video covers the recorded-statement trap and other communication hazards.
Play 5: “Settle now, before the EPA rollback changes everything.” The defense may create false urgency — suggesting that the regulatory rollback will weaken your claim or that settlement windows are closing. The rollback does not change the science, does not change your blood serum level, and does not change the manufacturer’s liability for having contaminated your water. The urgency is real, but it is the evidence clock — not the regulatory clock — that should drive your timing.
How a PFAS Case Is Actually Built
Here is how a case like this is actually assembled, from the first phone call to the submission of your claim.
When you call, the first conversation is free. We listen. We ask where you lived, when you lived there, what your water source was, what your diagnosis is, when you were diagnosed, and whether you have had blood serum PFAS testing. We do not promise a specific dollar amount. We do not guarantee eligibility. We tell you honestly whether we see a path.
If we take the case, the first move is the evidence-preservation sequence. We send preservation letters — to water utilities, employers, and any other entity that holds records of your exposure — ordering them to freeze those records before they can be legally destroyed. We arrange blood serum PFAS testing if you have not already had it, because the clock on your serum level is the fastest-ticking clock in the case. We request your complete medical records, including pathology slides and imaging, from every provider who has treated you for the diagnosed condition.
Then we build the exposure timeline. We reconstruct where you lived, for how long, what your water source was, and what the contamination data shows for that source. We pull water utility testing reports, Wisconsin DNR records, and any EPA compliance data. For military or firefighter exposure, we pull service records and AFFF use documentation. The goal is to prove not just that PFAS was in the water, but that you drank it, for how long, and in what concentration.
Then we build the causation bridge. We retain board-certified toxicologists, epidemiologists, and oncologists who can articulate both general causation — the published scientific link between PFAS exposure and your specific disease — and specific causation — the dose-response relationship, temporal fit, and confounder screen connecting your exposure to your diagnosis. This expert work is the make-or-break element. A generalist files the complaint that gets dismissed. A specialist files the complaint that survives.
Then we file. If your claim belongs in the MDL, we file there. If it belongs in state court, we file there. The venue decision depends on your residence, the defendant’s corporate presence, and the specific settlement framework’s eligibility requirements. In Wisconsin, we work with local counsel where required, and we appear pro hac vice — meaning we are admitted to practice in that specific case through the local court’s permission.
Then we submit your claim to the applicable settlement framework or claims administration facility. Your claim is evaluated based on the injury tier, exposure documentation, and medical evidence we have assembled. The strength of your file — the completeness of your exposure proof, the clarity of your medical records, the precision of your serum level — determines what tier you fall into and what the claim is worth.
This process takes months, sometimes longer. The mass tort resolution system is not fast. But the evidence-preservation moves — the letters, the blood test, the records demands — happen in the first weeks, because they cannot wait.
Your First Steps: A Practical Roadmap
If you lived in Peshtigo and have been diagnosed with kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, liver cancer, thyroid disease, or ulcerative colitis, here is what you should do — and what you should not do — in the coming days and weeks.
Do get blood serum PFAS testing. This is both a medical priority and an evidentiary necessity. Your serum level is the single best proof of your exposure dose, and it declines over time. Talk to your doctor about a PFAS blood test, or call us and we can help arrange it. Do this before you relocate, if relocation is planned, and before any extended period away from the water source.
Do gather your residential history. Write down every address you lived at in the Peshtigo area, the dates you lived there, and your water source at each address — private well, municipal water, or both. Dig out old lease agreements, property deeds, utility bills, and any correspondence about your water supply. These documents establish the duration window for your exposure.
Do collect your complete medical records. Request copies of your complete medical file from every provider who has treated you for your diagnosed condition — including pathology reports, imaging, treatment summaries, and medication records. Do not accept summaries. Get the full file. Medical providers can purge records after state-mandated retention periods, and once those records are gone, they are gone.
Do document your water testing. If you had your private well tested for PFAS, find those results. If you did not, contact the Wisconsin DNR or your local health department to request historical testing data for your area. Water system testing results may be publicly available, but historical sampling data may be limited — request it early.
Do not sign anything from the manufacturers, their insurers, or any settlement administrator without having a lawyer read it first. A release that looks like a routine form may extinguish your personal injury claim. A settlement check that arrives with a release printed on the back may close your case before it opens. If you already signed something in connection with the private well settlement, we can examine whether it covers personal injury claims or only property and water-supply claims.
Do not give a recorded statement to the manufacturers’ representatives or their insurers. A friendly call asking you to “just tell us what happened” is engineered to be quoted against you. If they call, listen, take notes, and tell them you will have your attorney call them back. Then call us.
Do not post about your case on social media. The defense monitors social media for statements that can be used to minimize your claim, contradict your timeline, or undermine your credibility. A photo of you at a family barbecue can be used to argue your quality of life is not as impaired as you claim. A comment about your diagnosis timeline can be used to challenge your statute-of-limitations position. Silence is your friend.
Do call us. The consultation is free. The call costs you nothing. We will tell you honestly whether we see a viable claim, and if we do not, we will tell you that too. You can reach us at 1-888-ATTY-911, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You will speak to a live person, not an answering service.
Why Attorney911
We are The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — Attorney911. We are based in Houston, Texas, and we take toxic tort, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death cases in Wisconsin, working with local counsel and appearing pro hac vice where required. We do not have a Wisconsin office, and we will not pretend we do. What we have is 27-plus years of trial experience, a former insurance-defense attorney who knows the other side’s playbook from the inside, and a track record of recovering more than $50 million for injured clients across the country.
Ralph Manginello — our Managing Partner — has been licensed since November 1998, 27-plus years in courtrooms including federal court. He is a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he builds cases the way a reporter builds a story: follow the paper, find the truth, write it so a jury can see it. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association, and he leads the active $10 million hazing lawsuit in Harris County. He speaks Spanish.
Lupe Peña — our associate attorney — spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like you. He knows how claim valuation software works, how IME doctors are selected, how surveillance is deployed, and how delay tactics are engineered to push you past the statute of limitations. Now he sits on your side of the table. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
The medicine, the corporate-accountability fight, the catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death work — these do not change because the mechanism is new. The principles are the same: find the evidence before it disappears, build the causation chain with the right experts, name the right defendants, and make the proof so clear that the other side’s valuation software cannot discount it. For families who lost someone to PFAS-related cancer, the wrongful death track carries its own set of deadlines and damage categories that we handle with the same intensity.
We operate on contingency. That means you pay nothing upfront, no hourly fees, no out-of-pocket costs. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is 33.33 percent before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. The first call is free, and you will speak to a live person — not a recording, not a call center — at any hour of any day.
Hablamos Español. We serve your family fully in Spanish, from the first consultation through every step of the case.
You can reach us at 1-888-ATTY-911, or through our contact page. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. And the clock on your evidence is already running.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. What we guarantee is this: we will tell you the truth about your case, we will tell you whether you have a claim worth pursuing, and if you do, we will build it as if it were going to trial — because that is how you get the best settlement, and how you get the justice the manufacturers spent decades trying to avoid.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue for PFAS contamination in my drinking water?
Yes — if you were diagnosed with a PFAS-related illness and believe contaminated drinking water may be the cause, you may be able to pursue a PFAS water contamination lawsuit against the manufacturers. Eligibility depends on your diagnosis, your documented exposure to contaminated water, your residential history near the contamination source, and the statute of limitations in your state. The consultation is free, and we can tell you quickly whether your situation meets the criteria.
How much is a PFAS water contamination lawsuit worth?
Individual PFAS personal injury claim values range from approximately $50,000 at the low end to $1,000,000 or more at the high end, depending on the specific disease, the duration and intensity of exposure, the strength of your medical and exposure evidence, and the settlement framework tier your claim falls into. Cancer diagnoses — kidney, testicular, thyroid, liver — represent the highest-value claims. Thyroid disease and ulcerative colitis typically settle at lower tiers. Wrongful death claims may carry premium value. No attorney can guarantee a specific amount without reviewing your specific facts.
How long do I have to file a PFAS lawsuit in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin generally gives you three years to file a personal injury lawsuit, and three years for a wrongful death claim. The critical question is when the clock starts. For latent diseases like PFAS-related cancers, the discovery rule may apply — meaning the clock may not start until you knew or should have known that your illness was connected to PFAS exposure. For many people, that is the date of diagnosis or the date they learned their water was contaminated. Because the specific triggering event is vigorously contested and varies by jurisdiction, you should speak with an attorney as soon as possible to determine whether your claim is still within the filing window.
What cancers are linked to PFAS in drinking water?
The cancers most strongly linked to PFAS exposure through contaminated drinking water are kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, and liver cancer. The C8 Science Panel found a “probable link” between PFOA and both kidney cancer and testicular cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified PFOA as a Group 1 carcinogen — its highest category — in 2024. PFAS are also linked to thyroid disease (hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Hashimoto’s disease), ulcerative colitis, and elevated cholesterol.
How do I know if my water was contaminated with PFAS?
If you lived in Peshtigo and drank from a private well or a municipal water source near an industrial site, military base, airport, or fire training facility, your water may have been contaminated. The $17.5 million class action settlement for Peshtigo residents specifically addressed PFAS contamination of private drinking water wells. Water testing data may be available from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, your local health department, or EPA compliance records. Blood serum PFAS testing can confirm whether these chemicals are in your body and at what levels.
What is the Peshtigo PFAS settlement and does it cover me?
The $17.5 million Peshtigo class action settlement addressed contamination of private drinking water wells with PFAS. That settlement was about the wells — property damage, water supply, and remediation. It was not about personal injury. If you received compensation through the well settlement, you may still have a separate, independent claim for personal injury if you have been diagnosed with a PFAS-related disease. The scope of any release you signed determines whether your personal injury claim survived. We can examine that document and tell you.
Do I need blood testing for PFAS, and how long do I have to get it?
Blood serum PFAS testing is both a medical priority and the single most important piece of evidence in your case. It measures the concentration of PFAS compounds in your blood and establishes your exposure dose. Serum PFAS levels decline gradually after exposure ceases — so if you have moved away from Peshtigo or switched water sources, your levels are already dropping. Testing should be done promptly to capture the highest defensible concentration. This is the fastest-ticking clock in your case, and it is the one we move on first.
What if I lived near a military base or industrial site with PFAS?
Over 600 military sites across all 50 states have confirmed PFAS contamination from decades of required AFFF firefighting foam use by the Department of Defense. If you lived on or near a military base, worked as a firefighter who used AFFF, or lived near an industrial manufacturing site where PFAS were produced or used, you may have been exposed to high levels of PFAS in your water. Military service records, AFFF training documentation, and residential history near these sites are critical evidence. Call us and we can help determine whether your exposure qualifies.
Can I file a PFAS lawsuit if a family member died of cancer?
Yes. If a family member died from a PFAS-related cancer — kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, or liver cancer — and they lived in the Peshtigo area or another contaminated community, you may be able to pursue a wrongful death claim. Wisconsin’s wrongful death statute generally gives you three years from the date of death to file. The damages in a wrongful death case can include the decedent’s conscious pain and suffering, loss of financial support, loss of companionship, and funeral expenses. A survival action may also be available for the period between injury and death.
How much does a PFAS lawyer cost?
Nothing upfront. We work on contingency — you pay no hourly fees, no out-of-pocket costs, and nothing unless we successfully secure compensation for you. The fee is 33.33 percent before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. The first consultation is free, and we will tell you honestly whether we see a viable claim before you owe anything. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 at any time, day or night, and you will speak with a live person.