Groundwater tested at the former Dexter Lock facility exceeds the state’s maximum contaminant levels for PFAS, according to the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team. Dexter Lock operated in the 1600 block of Madison Avenue in Grand Rapids from 1916 to 1982. It was an active manufacturing site until 2016. In 2021, the former manufacturing building was demolished, and a portion of the site has since had a new industrial and office building constructed there.
Groundwater testing was done as part of redeveloping the site, with several wells showing levels above criteria.
There are no residential drinking wells in the immediate area. Groundwater from the site flows west, though there is no nearby body of water. The property is about a mile north of Plaster Creek and about three miles east of the Grand River. The area is served by municipal water.
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