Photo: Katy Batdorff / Special to Detroit News
Lansing — Amid growing concern over chemical contaminants in the state’s drinking water, Gov. Rick Snyder’s office on Tuesday adopted a threshold for when regulators can act against polluters. The new rule will require state remediation if residential or commercial drinking water is found to have per- and polyfluoroalkyl levels that meet or exceed 70 parts per trillion.
The substances, known collectively as PFAS, have been found in at least 14 communities across the state and have drawn extra scrutiny because of legacy pollution from a former chemical dumping site for footwear company Wolverine Worldwide north of Grand Rapids. The new action level mirrors federal guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is the first time the state has had any such threshold for PFAS .
Because the EPA guideline is only a recommendation for unsafe exposure levels, it’s difficult for states to hold companies responsible for any PFAS pollution, said Ari Adler, a spokesman for Snyder. “It’s harder to hold someone liable for something that there’s no action level for, it’s just an advisory,” Adler said. “We needed to set an action level. You have to have somewhere to […]
Full article: Michigan sets limit for chemical contaminants in water
More about: forever chemicals (PFAS, etc.), pollution, and public health
