“LANSING, MI — Michigan regulators are cracking down on municipal sewage plants in a bid to curb the amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS or PFCs passing through wastewater facilities into landfills and waterways that feed the Great Lakes.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wants sewage plants that treat industrial wastewater to find out which customers are using the robust class of toxic fluorochemicals that are polluting drinking water supplies around the state.
Each of the 70-some plants around Michigan treating industrial wastewater have until late June to find PFAS users among their customer base and develop a plan to monitor for the chemicals before submitting a final report in October.
Notices went to wastewater plant operators in late February…
#PFAS questionnaire issued to industrial wastewater users by Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) in Detroit: https://t.co/kGa8MiclgD pic.twitter.com/GblovONWBn
— Garret M. Ellison (@garretellison) March 21, 2018
Division leaders say the scrutiny on industrial wastewater started last year in Lapeer, where PFAS in the sewage plant discharge was traced to Lapeer Plating and Plastics, an automotive supplier that uses PFAS chemicals in decorative chrome finishing…
According to state documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the Lapeer Wastewater Treatment Plant effluent tested between 440- and 2,000-parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOS in samples taken in May, June and August 2017…
Concentrations of PFOS in wastewater that Lapeer Plating and Plastics was sending to the sewage plant tested between 12,000- and 19,000-ppt last summer…
Testing also found elevated levels of PFOS in stormwater runoff at Lapeer Plating and Plastics last summer; 760- to 1,200-ppt in two drainage outfalls.
The testing resulted in numerous permit violation notices…
Seidel said the federal Clean Water Act gives the DEQ authority to prohibit pollutants from passing through sewage plants into the environment, or “interfering” with plant operations by contaminating the bio-solid sludge that plants generate and must landfill.
Discharge permits also require plants to evaluate the impact of new or emerging pollutants, she said.”
Read the full article by Garret Ellison.