The Wisconsin Supreme Court gave environmentalists a win Tuesday in a move that makes it easier for them to hold polluters accountable for using “forever chemicals.“

The state’s high court ruled in a 5-2 decision to reverse lower court rulings and allow the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to remove and remediate the presence of hazardous chemicals, including PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The ruling ensures that state regulators can force companies to clean up chemicals such as PFAS before they are designated as hazardous substances — a process that can take years to get approved by the state legislature.

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“Wisconsin’s Spills Law safeguards human health and the environment in real time by directly regulating parties responsible for a hazardous substance discharge,” Justice Janet Protasiewicz said in the ruling. “We therefore reverse the court of appeals.”

Wisconsin‘s most populous cities, such as Madison and La Crosse, and its many rural communities have grappled with PFAS contamination. The chemicals do not break down, meaning they remain in the environment, and the body has a difficult time breaking them down. PFAS has been linked to many health problems, including certain types of cancer and reproductive problems.

The case was originally filed in 2021 by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce on behalf of Leather Rich, a dry cleaning business in Oconomowoc, against Wisconsin’s Spills Law, which requires parties responsible for containing water to clean up. Wisconsin had been using the Spills Law to aid communities that had contaminated drinking water.

The lawsuit argued that the Spills Law was unlawful because it did not participate in a rule-making process to designate “forever chemicals” as hazardous. The group argued the DNR could not force businesses to clean up contamination from chemicals such as PFAS without first designating the chemicals as hazardous substances.

During the arguments, justices warned that eliminating the law could be more dangerous than keeping it.

“By the time you make a rule about it, it will already have done whatever damage it did,” Justice Rebecca Dallet said.

One conservative justice sided with the four liberal justices in the ruling. Two conservative justices, Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley, dissented, saying the ruling allows bureaucrats to “impose rules and penalties on the governed without advance notice, oversight, or deliberation. In doing so, the majority violates three first principles fundamental to preserving the rule of law — and liberty.”

Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) called the ruling a “historic victory.”

EVERY WISCONSIN COUNTY SHIFTED LEFT IN STATE SUPREME COURT RACE

“The Supreme Court’s decision today means that polluters will not have free rein to discharge harmful contaminants like PFAS into our land, water, and air without reporting it or taking responsibility for helping clean up those contaminants,” he said in a statement.“It’s a great day for Wisconsinites and the work to protect and preserve our state’s valuable natural resources for future generations.”

Midwest Environmental Advocates attorney Rob Lee called the ruling “a victory for the health and wellbeing of the people of Wisconsin” that reinforces “a bedrock environmental and public health protection that has kept Wisconsinites safe from toxic contamination for almost fifty years.”