Consumer activist Erin Brockovich is demanding answers from Wolverine Worldwide and urging area residents to do the same. Her comments came at a town hall this weekend in Grand Rapids, as Brockovich met with a number of people affected by the recent discovery of contaminated water in Belmont and Rockford.
“I think I’m not going to be surprised but I am surprised again,” Brockovich said. “The secrets that have been kept from us, throughout the country. And not only here in Michigan of these chemicals and the known danger, and we are sitting ducks.”
Brockovich has joined a legal team including the Miller Law Firm that has filed a class action lawsuit against Wolverine World Wide, 3M Corporation and Waste Management.
The lawsuit seeks “immediate blood testing, monitoring and damage for people who have been harmed by water contamination after waste dumped by Wolverine Worldwide containing toxic per and poly floral alkyl substances contaminated a number of wells in Rockford and Belmont area.”
While the awareness of PFAS chemicals began to emerge in the late 1990’s, Wolverine Worldwide dumped waste containing the chemical back in the 1960’s.
“Yes there was not full understanding of PFAS or PFOA and whether it did or did not cause cancer,” Brockovich said. “But it was well documented that this was a dangerous chemical.”
Brockovich, who admits she can be jaded towards large corporations says she inherently believes Wolverine Worldwide executives know more than they are sharing with the public about the dump sites and the potential dangers they could cause.
“I’m not going to believe that there’s scant documentation whether it be from the DEQ or Wolverine. I’m not going to believe that, because you do know. Because we were able to find out where Wolverine was dumping in the sixties. How is it that you kept record of that and nothing else?”
While Wolverine Worldwide officials will not comment on pending litigation, the company did send a letter to Brockovich that said “they are striving to do the right thing.”
