Mount Pleasant water safe from PFAS contamination, tests conclude
After a month-long testing process beginning Oct. 18, drinking water in the Mount Pleasant area was been declared safe from a contamination of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS.
According to a Nov. 27 joint press release from the City of Mount Pleasant, Charter Township of Union and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, PFAS testing in drinking water sources is being done as part of a statewide initiative spearheaded by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the private environmental firm AECOM.
Chemicals within the PFAS family have been used in the manufacturing process of a variety of products since the 1940s, including the foam used in fire suppression systems and products by Teflon and Scotchgard.
The testing was done on sources of public drinking water. Water sources located on the property of the former Roosevelt Refinery near the corner of Pickard Street and Crawford Road, which tested positive for PFAS contamination in August 2017, are isolated from local drinking water.
All sites tested by the City of Mount Pleasant and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe came back with a "non-detect" result.
Of the three sites tested by Charter Township of Union, two came back as "non-detect" and one site came back at 6 part per trillion (ppt). This level is still below the Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime health advisory of 70 ppt, and still safe to drink, according to MDEQ's website.
Based on the 6 ppt test result, Charter Township of Union officials will be working with the MDEQ to conduct follow-up sampling and evaluation, the press release stated.
