Groundwater treatment systems to address 'forever chemicals' planned near Michigan military base
Two groundwater treatment systems will be installed near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in northern Michigan as the U.S. Department of Defense looks to address “forever chemical” contamination
LANSING, Mich. — Groundwater treatment systems will be installed near a military base in northern Michigan to address contamination from high levels of toxic, widely used “forever chemicals,” the U.S. Department of Defense announced Thursday.
Two systems will be deployed to address the spread of PFAS, an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in groundwater near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan. The base, which closed in 1993, is located on Lake Huron.
PFAS chemicals are a group of compounds that are widespread, dangerous and expensive to remove from water. They don’t degrade in the environment and are linked to a broad range of health issues, including low birthweight and kidney cancer.
“For far too long, Oscoda and surrounding communities have lived with the impact of PFAS contamination created by the Department of Defense,” Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin said in a statement. She added that the systems “are a positive step forward, even with much more work to do.”
The announcement comes close to two years after an environmental group released of Department of Defense records that showed PFAS had contaminated groundwater near at least six military sites in the Great Lakes region. At the former Air Force Base in Oscoda, department records showed PFAS had been detected at levels up to 213,000 parts per trillion.
Tony Spaniola has pushed the Pentagon to clean up PFAS contamination at and near Wurtsmith Air Force Base since he received a notification in 2016 that water near his Oscoda
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