Grand Rapids’ U.S. Representative Hilary Scholten announced that the Gerald R. Ford International Airport received $300,000 from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law by President Biden in 2021. The act funds highway projects but was amended allowing for investments in broadband access, electric grids and clean water renewal.
The $300,000 will be used by the airport funding field testing and measuring of destruction technologies to reduce the impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, better known as PFAS, which has been linked to cancer in humans.
Ultimately, the investment is expected to prevent PFAS from affecting surface and groundwater quality at the airport itself and within five miles of the property.
In March of 2018, the so-called “forever chemicals” were found in residential water wells downhill from the airport property. Those chemicals are believed to have originated from fire fighting foam, used by firefighters at the airport for training purposes.
