“ALTO, MI — Drinking water at an elementary school in southeast Kent County has tested positive for levels of toxic per- and polyfluorinated compounds called PFAS.
Testing done on the Alto Elementary drinking well detected a combined PFAS level of 23-parts per trillion, or ppt.
The PFAS compounds detected were PFHxS at 21-ppt and PFBS at 2-ppt, according to results from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
There are currently no federal health advisories for either compound. PFOS and PFOA are the only two PFAS compounds with a federal health advisory. That advisory is set at a combined 70-ppt…
The K-5 school has a yearly enrollment of about 500 students, according to Lowell Area Schools Superintendent Gregory Pratt.
Parents were notified Wednesday, Aug. 15, of the detection, Pratt said.
DEQ and Kent County Health Department officials gave the school the OK to continue using the water for drinking and food preparation, the superintendent said.
‘Right now they don’t have any immediate action for us to take,’ Pratt said.
Lowell Area School students return from summer break next week. Lowell’s municipal water supply, which services other schools in the district, has no detected PFAS, according to DEQ findings.
Alto is an unincorporated community in Bowne Township…
DEQ recently conducted a second sampling on the Alto Elementary School well. Test results have not come back yet.”
Read the full article by Michael Kransz