The PFAS issues at the Arbor Hills Landfill (AHL) are complex issues. The Conservancy Initiative has been trying to draw more attention to the impacts AHL is having on Johnson Creek and received some unexpected help from MLIVE. MLIVE did a very nice job simplifying the issues in an article he published on MLIVE on June 30, 2022. Please take a moment to review this article.
If you want to understand what the big fuss is over PFAS chemicals or forever chemicals, stream the movie Dark Waters (Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Tim Robbins) this weekend. We don’t want to endorse the movie, but it does tell a frightening story.
The MLIVE article and the sampling recently completed by The Conservancy Initiative highlight that the stormwater runoff from AHL is being discharged into Johnson Creek with PFOS, a regulated “forever chemical” with concentrations higher than Michigan Water Quality Standards for Lakes and Streams. The landfill owner, Green for Life, and EGLE are aware of the issues but we have been unable to force periodic sampling of the discharges. The problem is not going to be corrected until it is at least measured.
We hope to have much more discussion on this issue.