Paradise is Leaking

The sapphire blue and emerald green of Lake Superior, below an ancient sand dune in the middle of Paradise Michigan, is mixing with reds, oranges and black chemicals, leaching from the dune. The now infamous Paradise leak has been spitting into the pure waters of Lake Superior in plain sight for decades.

A small group of residents have spent the last ten years assimilating all they can about mercury and lead and chromium, and petroleum based fluids (LNAPLS) and PFAS and salt contamination. And the residents have learned the hard and disappointing lesson of working with government people who do not care and who walk away.

Bridget Nodurft and some friends realized that they had a significant chemical dump across the street from the Whitefish Schools, next to the community hall and across from a parsonage. The land and dump had been owned and used by the Chippewa County Road Commission. No one disputes who owns the responsibility for creating the dump.

But Nodurft’s group, the Paradise Brownfield Remediation Initiative (PBRI), thought that they and the reasonable people who oversaw pollution like this could stop it, and end the threat to their village and a significant native commercial fishing area. They contacted EGLE, which in 2004 acknowledged that the site was contaminated and leaking, and after ignoring requests to solve it declared years later that the site was “orphaned.” That sad term actually means EGLE doesn’t think anyone owns the buried dump and therefore nothing can be done. EPA, meanwhile acknowledged that the site was the Road Authority’s problem.

Sierra joined the fray in 2019. The Three-Lakes Group has met with Bridget Nodurft and her group and promised to help. 

The road authority has now switched from its earlier agreement to seek funding for a cleanup to throwing the responsivity back on Whitefish Township, and crucially, refused to apply for a brownfield remediation grant.

The people of Paradise sought other help. EGLE turned mute, in their terms. Earlier this year they sent a letter to Michigan’s Attorney General to assign Part 201 liability For the Road Authority’s contamination site and to enforce NERPA regulations. It has gone unanswered despite follow-up calls. Subsequent appeals to the Michigan Governor, the Michigan Public Advocate for Environmental Justice, Senator Stabenow, and Senator Peters have either been ignored or met with a cursory return telephone call and no assistance, according to the citizen’s group.

Michigan is tiptoeing around PFAS in dairy agriculture

By Garret Ellison | gellison@mlive.com

LANSING, MI — Kay Fritz let the cattle out of the bag in Boston.

Fritz, a toxicologist with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), told the National PFAS Conference audience that Michigan punted on testing an Allegan County dairy farm because it worried about killing the farmer’s business.

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North Kent County PFAS Exposure Assessment

Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 15, 2019

CONTACT: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112, SutfinL1@michigan.gov

North Kent County PFAS Exposure Assessment participants starting to receive results
Invited residents can still participate, urged to call 844-464-7327 

LANSING, Mich. – Blood test results are starting to be sent to participants in the North Kent County per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) Exposure Assessment. The PFAs Exposure Assessment is being conducted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Kent County Health Department (KCHD) and there is still time for selected residents to participate.

MDHHS and KCHD have been collecting blood samples and surveying residents of North Kent County who were exposed to PFAS through their drinking water since November 2018. Lab tests are measuring 24 PFAS analytes in the blood and it takes about 16 weeks for participants to receive test results. Drinking water samples from wells of participants’ homes are also being analyzed for the same 24 PFAS analytes to compare to the blood levels.

The PFAS Exposure Assessment is evaluating the relationship between drinking water with PFAS and the amount in the body. The assessment has included collecting blood samples and information on their activities that could result in PFAS exposure. Kent County was chosen for this assessment because no other area in Michigan has as many wells exceeding the advisory level nor are any test results as high.

Households were chosen from those that have a drinking water well located within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) North Kent County environmental investigation area and whose drinking water well has been tested by EGLE or by Wolverine Worldwide’s contractor and found to have PFAS. Two groups were identified to participate – those who had drinking water levels over the US Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water lifetime health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion and those who had drinking water levels of less than 70 parts per trillion. A sampling of homes in each of these two groups were invited to participate.

Residents of selected homes were mailed letters by MDHHS and contacted by phone to confirm their eligibility and enroll them in the assessment. MDHHS staff will soon be visiting selected homes that have not yet enrolled to drop off information about the assessment and how to participate. There are a limited number of planned dates left for selected residents to participate. If you received a letter or phone call from MDHHS and have not responded, MDHHS urges you to call 844-464-7327 to sign up before the assessment ends.

Although knowing your individual PFAS blood level will not predict or confirm any personal health problems, this study will provide much needed data the state can use to assess the impact of drinking water levels on human blood levels, and over time, perhaps contribute to the greater understanding of PFAS-related health issues at the population level.

PFAS have been used globally during the past century in manufacturing, firefighting foam and thousands of common household and other consumer products. These chemicals are persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and can accumulate over time. In recent years, experts have become increasingly concerned by the potential effects of high concentrations of PFAS on human health. Given the widespread use of PFAS, most humans and animals have some amount of PFAS in their blood, even without exposure directly to contaminants from a specific hazardous site. The public health implications of consuming elevated levels of PFAS are being studied worldwide.

MDHHS and KCHD are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the EGLE to investigate PFAS contamination in the county.

For more information about PFAS and the State of Michigan's PFAS response, visit the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team website Michigan.gov/pfasresponse.

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• Kent County Assessment results NR.pdf

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Citizen sleuths exposed pollution from a century-old Michigan factory, with nationwide implications

By Sara Talpos May 16, 2019 , 2:00 PM

ROCKFORD, MICHIGAN—For more than a century, a sprawling tannery here on the banks of the Rogue River churned out leather used to make some of the country's most popular shoes. The factory emitted a putrid stink, but it enabled this city of roughly 6000 people to thrive. "That's the smell of money," some locals used to say.

In 2009, however, shifts in the shoe trade prompted the tannery's owner, Wolverine Worldwide, which is based here, to close the facility. In a 2010 request for state funds to help redevelop the 6-hectare site, which sits astride a picturesque business district, lawyers representing the company stated: "There is no known contamination on the property."

Lynn McIntosh, a piano teacher and writer who has lived just a block from the tannery for more than 25 years, was skeptical. The statement was "legalese laced with hogwash," she recalls thinking when she read it.


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PFAS found in Saline during investigation across River Raisin watershed

By Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

Michigan officials are investigating PFAS contamination in a second watershed that feeds into Lake Erie.

The chemicals were found last summer in Saline, southwest of Ann Arbor, where the city’s wastewater treatment plant was discharging them to a tributary of the River Raisin.

That’s also near a contaminated industrial site, located just steps from the Saline River, that has even higher levels of the unsafe chemicals in groundwater- and they’re possibly moving into the river, officials say.

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Update: Mapping of the Expanding PFAS Crisis

Known Contamination from Toxic Fluorinated Chemicals Keeps Spreading, With No End in Sight

Last fall, Sandy Wynn-Stelt of Plainfield Township, Mich., learned that her well is contaminated with fluorinated industrial chemicals at more than 500 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s “safe” level for drinking water. In January, test results showed she had 750 times the amount of one of those chemicals in her blood as the average American.

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PFAS affecting dairy in Maine and New Mexico

• The curious case of tainted milk from a Maine dairy farm
• State Urged To Prevent Exposure To Harmful Chemicals Found In Sewage Sludge
• Public health experts aim to stop spreading of sludge
• Groundwater contamination devastates New Mexico dairy — and threatens public health
• Clovis dairy’s well contamination has farmers across the Ogallala concerned

Summit on PFAS contamination hosted by Senator Gary Peters (video)

Part 1

Part 2

NO MORE GORE-TEX!!

If you are native to the Pacific Northwest then you are probably familiar with Gore-tex. If you have ever purchased a waterproof backpack, tent, shoes, or even clothing, chances are that a Gore-tex label was affixed to it. In 1975, Columbia Sportswear introduced the first Gore-tex parka. A few years later, REI began selling outerwear products and personal clothing coated with Gore-tex. You can even walk into Wal-mart and purchase Gore-tex jackets and gloves. Over the past 40 years, Gore-tex has become the most recognized name in waterproof material for both outerwear products and personal clothing. But what exactly is Gore-tex, and why should there be no more?


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