“PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI — Plainfield Township is getting $750,000 from the state to cover the costs of adding a system to its water treatment plant to filter out toxic fluorochemicals…

The money comes from $23 million the legislature approved to address PFAS contamination issues across the state.

‘This will be immensely helpful to us in putting together our initial filtration system for PFAS,’ said township Superintendent Cameron Van Wyngarden…

Not counting Plainfield’s municipal system, an area search for Wolverine dump sites has turned up more than 550 wells with detectable PFAS levels so far. More than 100 are above the Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOS and PFOA…

Upgrading the water treatment plant is expected to remove PFAS, which have been linked to cancer and other illnesses. The state funds will replace the $400,000 the township allocated from an emergency fund in December…

State money will pay for the filtration changeover, which is expected to cost between $400,000 to $500,000.

The rest of the money will be used for a pilot study to test the granulated active carbon system, by comparing two filtering methods for effectiveness. The data will be gathered for the DEQ, and made available for other communities trying to figure out the best ways to rid their drinking water of PFAS.

To date, nine municipal water suppliers in Michigan have tested positive for PFAS at low levels. Not counting Plainfield, those include New Baltimore, Ira Township, Mount Clements, Ann Arbor, Grayling, Sparta, the Saginaw-Midland Corp. and the Huron Shores Regional Water Authority (HSRWA) system in Tawas.

Plainfield will study whether sand and activated carbon, or activated carbon by itself is more effective as a filter. Another question that needs to be answered is how long activated carbon can be used before it needs to be replaced.

‘Activated carbon works until it doesn’t,’ Van Wyngarden said. ‘It’s something they call breakthrough. It’s kind of like a trash can. Once it’s full, it’s full. It doesn’t accept any more. We need to have an understanding of when that happens.’ ”

Read the full article by Shandra Martinez.