Recent Notice of Violation letters issued by the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) highlight ongoing concerns regarding wastewater (leachate) discharge limits at the Arbor Hills Landfill.
How Leachate Management Works
To understand these violations, it helps to look at how landfill wastewater is handled:
Collection and Treatment: Arbor Hills collects leachate (water that filters through the landfill waste) and treats it on-site.
Discharge to YCUA: After treatment on-site, the leachate is drained into the Northville Township sanitary sewer and routed to the YCUA municipal water treatment facility.
Permit Limits: YCUA issues and enforces industrial discharge permits that set strict legal limits on the maximum allowable levels of contaminants—such as PFOS, PFOA, Ammonia Nitrogen, and Arsenic—that can be sent into the public sewer system.
Recent Violation Highlights
A Notice of Violation (NOV) issued on September 18, 2026, details multiple permit exceedances at the facility:
PFOS and PFOA: The facility was cited for multiple exceedances of the Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and one exceedance of the Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) limit.
Ammonia Nitrogen: The NOV also documented an exceedance for Ammonia Nitrogen.
A Pattern of Recurrence
These recent findings are part of a broader, documented history of recurring compliance issues addressed by YCUA through multiple enforcement actions over the past several months:
April 22, 2026 (Order to Show Cause) and Disposition of Show Cause Hearing: The facility bypassed its treatment system for maintenance, resulting in a sudden "slug" discharge of several PFAS chemicals well above permitted limits.
January 30, 2026 (Notice of Violation): Highlighted multiple exceedances of the Arsenic, PFOS, and PFOA permit limits.
November 10, 2025 (Notice of Violation): Noted several permit violations of the PFOS, PFOA, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Ammonia Nitrogen, and Arsenic limits.
Existing Consent Orders and Deadlines
Arbor Hills is currently operating under a binding Administrative Consent Order specifically due to repeated violations of its Arsenic discharge limits. Under the terms of this agreement, the facility must complete upgrades to the pretreatment system to achieve compliance by December 31, 2026.
Why Community Spotlight Matters
Environmental compliance documents are public records, but everyday residents struggle to find them because their existence is rarely advertised—often requiring formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and leaving even local leaders in the dark.
The goal of bringing these updates to light is to ensure the local community and its representatives stay fully informed. By keeping these recurring issues in a transparent public spotlight, community advocates hope to encourage rigorous oversight, prompt accountability, and swift resolution.