Michigan PFAS Action Response Team lists 300th contamination site

The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) announced today that it has listed the 300th site of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) groundwater contamination caused by the historic use and disposal of “forever chemicals” across the state.

As part of its ongoing review of historic data from landfills that previously received industrial waste from known PFAS manufacturers, MPART investigators determined that the Nankin Township Landfill in Wayne County received waste from 3M and other companies during the period the area was used as a landfill from the 1940s until the early 1960s.  

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed 5,000 cubic yards of industrial waste and 350 waste drums between 1994 and 1995, MPART investigators suspected PFAS still remained in the groundwater and installed monitoring wells in September 2024 to test for PFAS contamination. Results showed that various PFAS compounds remain present in the groundwater and surface water. The highest groundwater concentrations were 80 parts per trillion (ppt) PFOA and 25 ppt PFOS. These results exceed the state’s groundwater clean-up standards. 

MPART staff and local health officials reviewed residential well logs and determined that there are no private wells near the former landfill and nearby residences are served by municipal water sources.

“Given the fact that these persistent PFAS compounds have been manufactured for decades, it’s not surprising that MPART has found contamination in this closed landfill even though some clean-up was done decades ago,” said MPART executive director Abigail Hendershott. “This is why MPART is continuing to identify and hold accountable those responsible for this legacy contamination. Michigan continues to lead the nation in identifying PFAS contamination and protecting public health.”   

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel stated, “I commend the hard work by MPART to test and identify each and every one of these sites. I made a commitment when I initiated the PFAS Litigation project in 2020 to protect the public and the environment from the harmful impacts of PFAS and to hold corporate polluters like 3M responsible for that contamination, and that work continues today.”

Commonly known as PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a group of potentially harmful man-made chemicals used in thousands of applications globally, including firefighting foam, food packaging, and many other consumer and industrial applications. They do not break down easily in the environment and are known to accumulate in the tissues of living organisms.

MPART is a team of seven state agencies established under an Executive Directive in 2017 to ensure coordination in implementing a response to PFAS contamination. MPART became an enduring body under an Executive Order in 2019. The goal of MPART is to protect public health by identifying sources of PFAS, addressing PFAS contamination at the sources, and working with local health departments to protect people in areas where groundwater is impacted by PFAS.