CADILLAC — The City of Cadillac is reacting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 5-year Review of the Cadillac Superfund Site.
The report centers around the clean-up of historical industrial hexavalent chromium from the former Northernaire Plating Superfund site and volatile organic compounds from the Kysor Superfund site.
The city cites that it, and the agency set up to clean-up the Superfund sites, the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA), are not responsible parties, but have acted in a proactive and responsible manner as issues have arisen. The city says this an effort to refute claims being made on social media to the contrary.
The City of Cadillac says its utilities department, along with the LDFA have taken action to evaluate the effectiveness of the Superfund clean-up system and monitor groundwater. They say they have also replaced the city’s old well field with two new well fields. They say they have also extended municipal water to area near the Superfund sites.
The city says the recent discovery of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wells near the Superfund sites have not exceeded any EPA criteria, the LDFA agreed to test certain wells for PFAS. The EPA has also not determined if any PFAS contamination came from the Northernaire or Kysor Superfund sites.
Despite that, the city has supported PFAS testing by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy outside the Superfund sites and is extending the municipal water supply to areas where it’s feasible to do so. The city also asking the State of Michigan for a multi-million-dollar grant to continue that extension.
You can read the full EPA 5-Year Review here.