Related — Lawmakers and activists call for stronger PFAS response in Michigan

“LANSING, MI — Activists want state legislators to return from summer break and investigate the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s handling of an expert report that warned of statewide exposure to toxic chemicals called PFAS long before the state began taking serious steps to address the widening contamination.

‘This report is a damming indictment of an agency whose core mission is to protect our environment and public health,’ said Lisa Wozniak, director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, on a Thursday call with reporters.

‘The fact that this report was suppressed for six years is appalling and inexcusable,’ she said, calling for a “compete investigation” into the DEQ’s handling of the report.

Wozniak and others were reacting to an August 2012 report co-authored by a DEQ environmental specialist and a Colorado toxicologist that warned of ‘significant exposure to Michigan citizens and ecosystems’ from PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances…

Wozniak called it ‘imperative’ the Legislature return and hold a joint inquiry, saying that ‘everyone who knew something about this and did nothing’ should be held accountable…

Calls to aides for Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard and Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof were not returned Thursday afternoon. Most state lawmakers are at home campaigning this summer. Both chambers return the first week of September.

On Friday, Republican leadership said it does not intend to call the Legislature back to Lansing…

Wozniak and others on the call said the state Legislature needs to do more to address the PFAS contamination crisis, which has hit more than 30 sites in 15 different Michigan communities thus far. Discovery of more sites is expected as statewide testing continues…

A bill to establish a statewide enforceable drinking water standard of 5 parts-per-trillion (ppt) introduced in December by state Rep. Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, is stalled in the House Natural Resources Committee. The limit would be the nation’s toughest PFAS drinking water standard…

Tony Spaniola, a Troy attorney who owns a cottage in Oscoda, where PFAS contamination from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base has polluted drinking water and natural resources like Van Etten Lake and the Au Sable River, said $23 million in funding for PFAS that state lawmakers previously allocated, as well as several million for 2019 in the recently passed budget, is a ‘drop in the bucket.’

Spaniola said estimates on contamination cleanup at individual military bases like Wurtsmith approach $300 million. ‘Let’s not kid ourselves,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to be cheap.’ ”

Read the full article by Garret Ellison