CADILLAC — Homeowners learning the latest about the investigation looking into PFAS, or forever chemicals, in private wells in and around the Cadillac area.
The new data shared at a town hall Wednesday afternoon where the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and other agencies gave an update on their months long probe.
They surveyed other parts of Wexford County, including the North part of the county, as they finish up their investigations of the Wexford Missaukee Career Technical Center area, the Cadillac Industrial Park area, and the US 131 and Mackinaw Trail area.
The executive director of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team or MPART, Abigail Hendershott, said they expanded their investigations in the county, testing 6 different areas of interest and sampling near-by neighbors.
“This is more of the Wexford area of interest around the self-samples. So, we’ve picked out individual locations where homes had exceedances using a self-test kit.”
She said the results didn’t show a specific source of contamination and there was other puzzling data.
“It also did not show results that match the original self-test kit. So, when we get data that is somewhat, you know, drastically different like that, we want to come back and follow up some more,” said Hendershott.
Hendershott said the collection methods EGLE uses differs from the self-test kits.
“EGLE samples are collected outside where the self-test kits will be sampled in the home. We’re not sure if that’s the difference or what it would be, but we definitely are going to look into it more,” said Hendershott.
MPART said they do not believe the contamination is widespread.
“What we’re seeing in the Cadillac areas seems to be smaller in little pockets. But additional data will give us a better picture, said Hendershott.
Susan Giftos, a long-time resident who started Cadillac Advocates for Clean Water said it’s good news that MPART has expanded their testing scope, based off the results from homeowner self-tests.
“It’s great. Everybody with a private well still needs to continue to test their water, find out if it is contaminated with PFAS, and then we can give you helpful information on what to do for filtration, where to go for bottled water, and what to do short term and long term,” said Giftos.
She said the community has been more proactive because of the information her group has shared on social media.
“It’s been wildly successful. They haven’t seen another community doing what residents here are doing with self-testing,” said Giftos.
Still, Giftos acknowledged MPART could be sharing more information.
“We have nine additional areas that are over state criteria, so it would be nice to see them expand into those areas and do further testing,” said Giftos.
To see the townhall meeting in its entirety, please click here.