“GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Michigan’s second-busiest airport is pushing back against state regulators looking into the possible groundwater contamination from AFFF, a chemical-based firefighting foam.
In a May 17 letter to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Gerald R. Ford International Airport managers deny using hazardous chemicals that are showing up in Cascade Township drinking water wells near the airport.
The airport also questioned the state’s authority to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, writing that the DEQ is attempting to retroactively ‘enforce rules not promulgated in full compliance with Michigan administrative law.’
Engineering and Facilities Director Casey Ries wrote ‘the airport objects to MDEQ’s regulation of PFAS and its request for this sampling workplan when there is no specific uniform method for analyzing for this family of chemicals (nationally or even through official MDEQ guidance), especially in matrices other than drinking water (e.g., soil).’
The airport expects test results from soil and groundwater sampling to be ready in June, but doesn’t plan to share them with DEQ until July or August in order to ensure they’re ‘accurate and reliable’…
According to the DEQ, Ford Airport used AFFF at several locations on the property in the past, including a fire training area, equipment testing areas and two locations where the foam was deployed in an emergency. The state has asked the airport to sample soils and groundwater at various depths in those areas…
The airport claims it didn’t use AFFF made with PFOS and PFOA…
The foam was approximately used up to 10 times a year in training exercises at Ford Airport from the 1970s through the late 1990s, according to airport CEO James Gill…
Moderate levels of PFOA have been detected in private drinking water wells downgradient of the airport, according to Tom Duisterhof, vice president of Kalamazoo-based Gordon Water Services.”
Read the full article by Michael Kranz