National Clothesline

The Wisconsin state clean-up fund has received a $6.2 million infusion that will be welcomed by cleaners who have been waiting for reimbursements from the fund.

The money was transferred from the state’s Environmental Improvement Fund into the Dry Cleaners Environmental Response Fund (DERF) to alleviate a backlog of cleaners and property owners waiting for reimbursements. The money will be repaid from the drycleaners’ fund as it becomes available.

DERF was initiated in 1997 to help cleaners with site remediation by establishing a fund based on license fees and solvent surcharges. Under the program, drycleaning plant owners and operators are reimbursed for eligible costs, subject to deductibles, for cleaning up soil and groundwater contaminated with drycleaning chemicals.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the success of the DERF — 48 sites have been cleaned up and 179 sites are in the cleanup process — resulted in a fund deficit and the state was unable to reimburse almost $2 million in money currently owed to drycleaners.

The $6.2 million will help up the backlog and reimburse incoming requests more promptly, DNR said. The Wisconsin Fabricare Institute said the additional money should also prevent increases of fees drycleaners currently pay into the program — a 2.8 percent fee on drycleaning gross receipts and $5 per gallon of perc purchased and 75 cents per gallon on other solvents.

DERF fees were increased in 2008 from the original 1.8 percent gross receipts fee because the fund was having trouble paying eligible reimbursements after making almost $9 million in reimbursements to drycleaners s during the first 10 years of the program.

Until 2008, the fund had been taking in about $1 million a year; the higher gross receipts fee was expected to generate approximately $1.5 million a year.

The program stopped receiving new applicants a year ago. DNR said there are 280 licensed drycleaners in the state eligible for the program.

A letter to DERF program applicants said that questions concerning reimbursements should be directed to Jillian Steffes at the Bureau of Community Financial Assistance, (608) 266-1967.

That same letter also cautioned cleaners that failure to follow the proper selection process in hiring consultants for clean-ups could make them ineligible for DERF reimbursement. The consultant bidding process includes receiving three to six sealed bids from consultants for the proposed clean-up work.

“You cannot enter into a contract with your selected consultant until DNR has approved the consultant’s work plan and cost proposal,” DNR said.

More information on the program is available from the DNR web site, dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/rr/financial/dryclean.html.

December 31 is the deadline for applying for the 2010 Fitzgerald Scholarship which will be awarded by the Wisconsin Fabricare Institute at its table-top trade show in March.

The scholarship covers expenses up to $2,000, including tuition, travel, lodging and meals, to attend a drycleaning course at the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute. Any employer, employee or immediate family member of a firm that is a member or associate member of WFI is eligible.

Application forms are available from the WFI office, (414) 529-4707.