EGLE requests considerably tightened cleanup guidelines for Ann Arbor dioxane plume

A state division and a long-polluting manufacturing firm on Friday filed for brand new, strengthened cleanup requirements at an Ann Arbor website that has been a supply of underground contamination for the reason that Sixties.

The chemical compound referred to as 1,4-dioxane has plagued northwest Ann Arbor’s water for greater than 55 years, since Gelman Sciences — as soon as a frontrunner within the metropolis’s trade — started polluting soil and groundwater with the carcinogen on the firm’s Scio Township plant whereas manufacturing micro-porous filters.

The Michigan Division of Surroundings, Nice Lakes, and Power (EGLE) and Gelman Sciences, LLC filed a movement Friday requesting that the Washtenaw County Circuit Courtroom enter an up to date consent judgment on cleanup actions there.

The final time the judgement was up to date was in 2011, greater than a decade in the past. It was up to date twice extra earlier than then.

1,4-dioxane, typically referred to easily as dioxane, is an ether used as a solvent for a wide range of makes use of. It’s also a suspected human carcinogen that’s irritating to the eyes and respiratory system, and damaging to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system.

The late Charles Gelman’s firm used an estimated 850,000 kilos of 1,4-dioxane between 1966 and 1986; most was discharged to soil, floor water and groundwater on the Scio Township website. Gelman Sciences was first ordered to handle the plume in 1992.

The up to date consent judgement seeks to switch the 2011 judgement’s commonplace of 85 components per billion (ppb) with the brand new, a lot stricter 7.2 ppb.

It additionally requires extra response actions from Gelman to adjust to cleanup standards for ingesting water, floor water and soils, together with:

Putting in wells to observe the 1,4-dioxane plume and observe its migration
Investigating groundwater migrating into floor water to find out if the legislation requires motion there
Offering bottled ingesting water to residents if a residential properly exceeds 3 ppb
Growing contingency plans to increase municipal water in sure areas if residential wells are impacted by higher than 7.2 ppb
Investigating and proposing response actions for the property’s wetland.

“The up to date phrases put the cleanup on observe to carry new extraction wells and monitoring wells on-line, bolster contingency planning, and take different obligatory steps to guard public well being and the surroundings,” stated Performing EGLE Director Dan Eichinger.

Neither EGLE nor Gelman consider {that a} listening to is a obligatory requirement for the courtroom to approve the consent judgment, however Lawyer Basic Dana Nessel’s division has nonetheless requested that the courtroom maintain a listening to as quickly as doable, if one is critical.