Water cremation is not legal in Wisconsin. A 2021 bill that would have authorized the process — formally called alkaline hydrolysis, and sometimes marketed as aquamation — passed the state Senate but died in the Assembly in March 2022, and no replacement has been enacted since. Families who want this form of disposition for a loved one currently have to arrange it in another state.
What Water Cremation Is
Alkaline hydrolysis dissolves a body in a sealed stainless-steel chamber using heat, pressure, and a solution of roughly 95 percent water and 5 percent potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide. The chamber runs at about 200°F to 302°F, and the cycle takes anywhere from three to sixteen hours depending on the equipment. What comes out is bone material and a sterile liquid. The bones are dried and pulverized into a white powder that can be returned to the family in an urn, similar to flame cremation ashes but roughly 30 percent greater in volume. The liquid, containing salts, sugars, amino acids, and peptides but no tissue or DNA, is pH-adjusted and discharged into the municipal wastewater system.
Supporters point to lower energy use, no direct greenhouse-gas emissions, and no mercury vapor from dental fillings. Consumer pricing where the process is legal generally runs $2,000 to $3,500.
What Wisconsin Families Can Do Right Now
Because alkaline hydrolysis is not an authorized form of disposition under Wisconsin law, no funeral home or crematory in the state can perform it. A family that wants water cremation has to send the body to a state where it is legal. Illinois and Minnesota both permit the process. According to reporting by Fox 6 Milwaukee, the transportation alone can run close to $5,000, on top of the cost of the procedure itself.
Traditional flame cremation and burial remain the standard options in Wisconsin, governed by Chapter 440, Subchapter VII of the state statutes.
What Senate Bill 228 Would Have Done
Senate Bill 228 was introduced in the 2021–2022 session by Republican State Senator Patrick Testin of Stevens Point, with bipartisan co-sponsorship in both chambers. It would have added “cremation by alkaline hydrolysis” to the statutory definition of cremation, placing it under broadly the same regulatory framework as flame cremation. Operators would have been required to destroy pathogens during the cycle, and containers would have had to be biodegradable and opaque. The bill’s language specifically excluded the sterile liquid byproduct from the legal definition of “cremated remains.”
The Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association helped draft the legislation. Jimmy Olson, then the association’s president, argued that the state’s roughly 400 funeral homes were being served by only about 70 crematories and that demand for cremation was outpacing capacity. Testin framed the proposal as a matter of consumer choice, noting that Wisconsin funeral directors were losing business to Illinois and Minnesota.
The Senate Health Committee advanced the bill by voice vote, and the full Senate passed it on May 11, 2021, without debate. The Assembly never took it up, and it died when the session ended in March 2022.
Why the Bill Stalled
The main organized opposition came from the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s five Roman Catholic bishops. In an April 2021 letter to Senator Testin and the Senate Health Committee, then-Executive Director Kim Vercauteren wrote that alkaline hydrolysis does not honor the sacredness of the human body. “With alkaline hydrolysis, remains are washed into a wastewater system as though the body created by God never existed,” she stated.
The conference objected in particular to SB 228’s exclusion of the liquid byproduct from the definition of cremated remains, arguing the bill treated the dissolved portion of the body as waste rather than as part of the person. It also raised environmental concerns, noting the process uses between 100 and 300 gallons of water per disposition. The organization said it was not opposed to all alternatives, and expressed support for green burial and direct burial that do not require embalming. Barbara Sella, the conference’s current executive director, has confirmed the position has not changed.
That opposition is reinforced by national Church guidance. In March 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine released a seven-page statement concluding that both alkaline hydrolysis and human composting “fail to satisfy the Church’s requirements for proper respect for the bodies of the dead.” The committee drew on the Vatican’s 2016 instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo, which permits flame cremation only when ashes are laid to rest in a sacred place.
Will Wisconsin Legalize It?
Senator Testin has called SB 228 a “good bill” and suggested it could be reintroduced in a future session. The Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association’s website states that legislation to authorize the process is “currently being reviewed.” Jimmy Olson has predicted legalization will eventually reach Wisconsin.
No bill is currently in force, however, and the Catholic Conference’s continuing opposition, backed by the 2023 national bishops’ statement, means any new proposal will face the same objections that stopped the last one. Nationally, roughly two dozen states have legalized alkaline hydrolysis since Minnesota became the first in 2003. New Hampshire is the only state that has explicitly prohibited it after previously allowing it. Wisconsin, for now, is among the states where the option is simply not available.
If You Are Planning Ahead
If water cremation matters to you or to someone whose arrangements you are helping plan, the practical options in Wisconsin today are to make arrangements with a provider in a state where the process is legal and budget for the transportation cost, or to choose among the dispositions Wisconsin does authorize, which include flame cremation, traditional burial, and green or direct burial. A Wisconsin funeral director can help coordinate out-of-state transport if that is the route you choose.