Read the full article by Ryan Stanton (Michigan Live)
“ANN ARBOR, MI – Regulating just seven types of PFAS won’t be enough.
That was the message residents and environmental leaders shared with Michigan officials Tuesday night, Jan. 14, calling for broader state regulations for harmful fluorochemicals in drinking water supplies.
More than 150 people attended a public hearing on the state’s draft PFAS rules at Washtenaw Community College, a stone’s throw from the PFAS-polluted Huron River, from which Ann Arbor draws most of its drinking water.
Over the course of two hours, state officials heard from nearly 40 different speakers, some sharing personal stories of PFAS exposure or fear of being exposed.
Rebecca Meuninck, deputy director of the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, said she’s worked nearly 20 years to protect Michigan residents from toxic chemicals…
The proposed rules are an important first step, many speakers said, thanking state officials for their work.
But considering there are several thousand PFAS types still unregulated, setting individual limits for seven won’t be fully protective of public health and the environment, they argued, encouraging the state to take a class-based approach and consider the cumulative effects of PFAS exposure…
Michigan’s proposed limits for seven types of PFAS in drinking water are:
- PFNA — 6 ppt
- PFOA — 8 ppt
- PFOS — 16 ppt
- PFHxS — 51 ppt
- GenX — 370 ppt
- PFBS — 420 ppt
- PFHxA — 400,000 ppt
Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy officials facilitated Tuesday’s hearing.
Eric Oswald, director of EGLE’s drinking water and environmental health division, said PFAS chemicals have been used ‘everywhere,’ including in the aerospace and oil/gas industries, pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel, construction, hospitals, car washes and firefighting foam…
The so-called ‘forever chemicals’ have been found in about 10% of the public drinking water supplies the state has tested, affecting at least 1.9 million Michigan residents.”