GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Recent test results have put the site of a former Grand Rapids landfill on the radar of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Task Force.
MPART published documents late last week declaring Butterworth #2 Landfill an official PFAS contamination site. Sampling conducted across the site in June found multiple results with PFAS levels exceeding safety standards.
In particular, three wells along the Grand River showed the worst results. One showed 320 parts per trillion of PFOS — perfluorooctane sulfonate — well above the safety standard of 16 ppt. That same well also showed 150 ppt of PFOA — perfluorooctanoic acid — and another showed 74 ppt of PFHxS — perfluorohexane sulfonic acid. The safety standards for those are 8 ppt and 51 ppt, respectively.
On the 180-acre site, 120 acres were used as a dump from 1950 to 1967 and then again as a sanitary landfill from 1967 to 1973. It was eventually shut down by state officials who had uncovered what the Environmental Protection Agency described as “improper operations.”