Read the full article by Sheri Mcwhirter (Traverse City Record Eagle)
“GRAYLING — State health officials will re-test drinking water wells for PFAS around Camp Grayling to determine whether changes occurred since the first tests began three years ago.
Officials with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday they will begin to test again drinking water wells around the Grayling Army Airfield, Lake Margrethe and Maneuver and Training Equipment Site (MATES) at Range 30 in Crawford County.
The first round of tests by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (formerly Environmental Quality) began in 2017 after per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances were found near the airfield in Grayling Township.
MDHHS contracted with Global Remediation Technologies or the Mannick Smith Group to collect new water samples from residential drinking water wells for updated PFAS analysis. Results are meant to compare PFAS concentrations to previous tests.
Well owners should expect a phone call to schedule an appointment for a new water sample to be collected in coming days, officials said.
Nearly 100 homes in the past tested positive for some level of the harmful pollutants in the drinking water source.
Experts point to decades of abundant military use of PFAS-laden firefighting foam as the source for the PFAS contamination around Camp Grayling. The toxic material dripped into groundwater through the years, eventually tainting water wells for hundreds around Grayling and leaking into surface waters like the AuSable River and Lake Margrethe…”