Between 150 to 200 residents attended Thursday’s meeting in Rockford, where the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, or EGLE, and the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team gave updates on locations in and around Rockford where PFAS had been discovered, as well as any links that contamination may have to the dumping of tannery waste by nearby Wolverine Worldwide.
Leah Gies is an Environmental Quality Analyst with EGLE who attended Thursday’s meeting.
“As far as Wolverine’s investigation goes, we were honest that we didn’t have the data at this time to be able to tie it to Wolverine as a definitive source or one of many sources. We just don’t have that information at this time, which I know is hard for people to hear but we wanted to be open and honest about where we’re at.”
PFAS is considered a forever chemical used in the manufacturing of many consumer products and can pose health risks, including cancer.
Data shows 59 tested homes in the area with some level of PFAS, with 24 of those having levels that exceed state safety limits.
Gies said that while there was understandable frustration and concern from many residents, most appreciated being kept informed about the current state of the investigation and the continued testing of water in the coming months.
“We’re going to continue to be sampling residential drinking water wells as we get more results that show PFAS, so where we find PFAS we’ll continue to step out past that and make sure we try to define this area of PFAS impact as best that we can.”
Gies says Wolverine will also continue to test groundwater PFAS levels on their property as well as expand testing to two offsite properties.
