“ALGOMA TOWNSHIP, MI — Within days of bringing their newborn baby daughter home from the hospital, Jeffrey Klekotka and his girlfriend Kelsey were being supplied with bottled water and gift cards.
The expanding investigation into local groundwater tainted by Wolverine World Wide tannery sludge chemicals had reached their Algoma Township doorstep east of Rockford.
That was early December. Last week, Klekotka received the test results for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS or PFCs in his drinking water well.
The results aren’t just high. According to toxicology experts familiar with PFAS, 58,930 parts per trillion (ppt) combined PFOS and PFOA is believed to be highest level of those two chemicals found in drinking water anywhere in the country — possibly the world…
The contamination isn’t coming from Wolverine’s House Street dump site in Belmont, where the previous record for PFAS in drinking water was found in a well across the street. That property is more than 2.5 miles to the southwest and downhill…
But that doesn’t mean nothing is known about why tannery waste leftovers are plaguing the area. According to local residents, Wolverine sludge was once spread on farmland later developed into upscale houses off Elstner Avenue NE south of 11 Mile Road.”
Read the full article by Garret Ellison