LANSING — Michigan public health advocates are raising concerns about the federal government’s handling of potentially harmful PFAS contamination.
The Trump administration has already estimated that PFAS cleanup at dozens of military bases around the country will be delayed by years at a time — and that includes multiple in Northern Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says that exposure to PFAS can lead to a higher likelihood of negative health outcomes.
“We’ve seen impacts on increasing cholesterol, we’ve seen some changes in thyroid function that — the most sensitive impact seems to be on, like, immune function in kids,” said Joost van ’t Erve, co-lead toxicologist for MDHHS.
Much of Michigan’s PFAS contamination comes from the use of AFFF firefighting foam, which was used at military bases from the 1960s until the 2000s.
“A lot of the legacy PFAS is what we find in the exposure,” he added. “So they’re not in products anymore, but we’re still being exposed to them through drinking water, accumulating in fish, seeing some accumulating foam on water bodies, things like that.”
Higher levels of contamination have been found at the former Kincheloe Air Force Base, which was in operation from 1941 through the 1970s and is now the site of the Chippewa County International Airport.
According to the state, most of the fish in bodies of water close to Kincheloe are not safe for human consumption at any level, largely due to PFAS contamination.
After years of the federal government taking a larger role in PFAS remediation, the Trump administration seems to be pulling back from that mission.
A military progress report released in early 2025 said that of 723 bases being assessed for PFAS use, more than 100 would have their projected completions delayed — often by multiple years.
Kincheloe had its estimated completion pushed from 2027 to 2031, a setback that’s drawing criticism from groups like the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network.
“Nobody thinks cleanup is going to get any cheaper as it moves on — it’s just going to get more expensive,” said Sandy Wynn-Stelt, co-chair of GLPAN. “So what they’re doing is they’re saying, ‘go ahead and pollute more, and we’ll hold off and clean it up later when it costs even more.’”
K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in Marquette also saw a delay of seven years for their estimated cleanup completion.
Camp Grayling and associated cleanup areas are set to be completed in either 2026 or 2030, which was unchanged from previous estimates.
The delays also come as the federal government is considering upending a ban on the purchase of firefighting equipment containing some PFAS, a reversal of a Biden-era policy.
Wynn-Stelt says that the proposal would run counter to PFAS mitigation efforts, and only add to the problem over time.
“It does us no good to ban this or to push for cleanup and push for cleaner water if we continue to produce it and then use it — because it’s just getting back in the landfills, and it’s just a circular problem,” she said.