PFAS Found In Johnson Creek

Locals call on landfill to clean up chemical-laden run-off

Story

Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), the state’s oversight agency charged with preserving safe water supplies.

Determining how to address pollution in Johnson Creek need not take forever, although patience is drawing thin. Which is why Drinan, in mid-May, literally took matters into his own hands by removing a sampling of creek water to send on for further examination.

The samples were sent to a laboratory for testing, upon which results showed an excessive amount of PFAS –namely, 49 parts per trillion, just over four times what is considered safe.

That alarming statistic followed an earlier study determining whether Johnson Creek fish were impacted by PFAS, conducted by The Ecology Center and Wayne State University with assistance from Plymouth-based Friends of the Rouge.

The Ecology Center/WSU study’s findings showed that a creek chub caught in Johnson Creek at the Fish Hatchery Park near downtown Northville contained 38 parts per billion of PFAS.

Alarmed by such statistics, Friends of the Rouge executive director Marie McCormick underscored the importance of measures that would help mitigate the problem.

“The bottom line is there are chemicals in that river that shouldn’t be there,” McCormick said. “They are inside the bodies of fish that we are collecting. And they are inside the bodies of fish that people are eating.

And that’s a problem.”

In mid-July, Drinan met with Northville officials about the situation and then wrote a letter to Dave Seegert, general manager of Arbor Hills (operated by Green For Life), in hopes of prompting regular monitoring of landfill stormwater.

“The Conservancy Initiative understands that the PFAS issues at the Arbor Hills Landfill are complicated and may take years to fully resolve,” Drinan’s letter began. “Because of the complicated nature of the PFAS issues, we believe remediation progress should be tracked by measuring the PFAS impacts on the environment outside the landfill.

“Ultimately, the PFAS leaving the landfill is the best measurement of the remediation progress at the landfill.”

The letter continued to note that a monitoring program “would allow (Arbor Hills Landfill) to better understand how PFOS concentrations are impacted by rain events, and remediation efforts and potentially demonstrate compliance with water quality standards.”

Moreover, Drinan’s letter intends to ratchet up pressure and build community awareness about finding solutions to a dire situation sooner rather than later. He remains hopeful the general public will soon have avenues to be heard on the subject.

“PFAS is an emerging pollutant that has been getting a lot of press lately,” Drinan explained. “It causes cancer in animals and human beings. It is referred to as the forever chemical because it doesn’t break down, it doesn’t bio- degrade. It keeps building up. So when you eat that fish it’s going in your blood, and it doesn’t break down. It just keeps accumulating.”

Also urging Seegert to promptly address the Arbor Hills stormwater issue was Northville Township Supervisor Mark Abbo.

“Johnson Creek is the area’s only cold-water trout stream and combines with the Rouge River in Northville,” noted Abbo in a July 14 letter to Seegert. “Protecting these streams is critical to our community.”

Environmental problems stemming from Arbor Hills Landfill stormwater have been on the radar for several years.

In June 2021, EGLE issued a violation to GFL for the landfill’s stormwater discharge exceeding water quality standards for the chemical.

A subsequent study by GFL determined that a foam material used to put out a 2016 fire at Arbor Hills was the source of that contamination.

Last August, a thunderstorm triggered a leachate spill into Johnson Creek. Leachate forms when water comes in contact with landfill waste.

“Rainwater and any liquid you leave in your trash or collects in your trash when you take it to the curb gets put into the landfill,” Drinan said. “Or it’s rainwater that falls on the landfill, gets into the landfill, and has to get pulled out of the landfill. So there’s pipes and pumps and systems to pull it out. You can see all the wells when you drive by a landfill, and there’s piping that collects it. But those pipes, there’s a possibility for leaks to develop.”

Keeping closer tabs on the situation is vital, according to a March report by The Conservancy Initiative in which it was recommended that Arbor Hills appoint a person to provide twice-yearly updates to the Northville Landfill Working Group – comprised of city and township officials and citizens.

Meanwhile, ensuring the ecological health of Johnson Creek is key to what Abbo wrote to Seegert are planned “significant investments” –including an estimated $6 million in environmental grants which would fund the Johnson Creek Intercounty Drain Restoration Project near Cold Water Springs.

Groundbreaking for the drain

upgrade is slated for 2024 and intends to “enhance wildlife habitat by increasing native fish, mussels and aquatic bugs.”

Abbo mentioned the investments in his letter to Seegert.

“It is crucial to promptly address the PFAS issues at Arbor Hills to protect these waterways and the planned investments,” Abbo wrote.

Dave Seegert, general manager of Arbor Hills, did not return calls to comment on this story.