Overview
- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a new civil lawsuit on June 12 against Tribar Technologies and Adept Plastic Finishing, alleging the companies continue to discharge PFAS-contaminated stormwater into the Huron River. The lawsuit claims this contamination violates state environmental laws and a prior consent order with EGLE, despite multiple warnings and previous enforcement actions. In 2022, Tribar Technologies released 10,000 gallons of hexavalent chromium-laden wastewater into the Huron River system, prompting a “do not contact” advisory that extended into Washtenaw County. Testing later confirmed only trace levels reached Ann Arbor, but the incident revealed gaps in oversight and emergency coordination.
- In April 2025, Tribar was criminally charged, fined $200,000, and placed on probation for the 2022 incident. Then, in June 2025, the Michigan Attorney General filed a separate civil lawsuit alleging ongoing illegal discharges from Tribar and its sister facility, Adept Plastics. The state’s lawsuit emphasizes that PFAS in Tribar’s stormwater outfalls—one testing as high as 220,000 parts-per-trillion—are adding contamination to an already compromised watershed. Combined with threats from phosphorus, E. coli, and legacy pollutants, these continued discharges significantly increase the environmental and health risks facing Washtenaw County residents.
- The Huron River remains under a “do not eat fish” advisory due to high PFAS contamination, especially upstream. Though unrelated to the 2022 chromium spill, it demonstrates the watershed’s vulnerability to persistent industrial pollution and public health risks.
- If the lawsuit succeeds, Tribar could be ordered to upgrade its stormwater infrastructure, conduct long-term monitoring, pay civil penalties, and halt operations in Michigan. The outcome may set a precedent for stricter enforcement against chronic polluters and reinforce the need for stronger corporate accountability in watershed protection.
Transcription
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to this week's edition of Issues of the Environment. I'm David Fair, and I don't need to tell you how important the Huron River is, not only to Washtenaw County, but throughout its entire watershed. It certainly faces its fair share of challenges. That includes PFAS contamination and other pollutants. In fact, last month, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a new civil lawsuit against Tribar Technologies and Adept Plastic Finishing. The suit alleges that, despite the fact the company's Wixom-based facilities have closed, the properties continue to discharge PFAS-contaminated stormwater into the Huron River. We wanted to find out more about the ongoing issues and real and potential impacts on the river, so we turned to the Huron River Watershed Council. Our guest today is Daniel Brown, and he is the Council's Climate Resilient Strategist. And thank you for the time today, Daniel! I appreciate it!
Daniel Brown: Hi, David! Thanks for having me!
David Fair: I'm sure you were pleased to see the Attorney General go after Tribar Technologies.
Daniel Brown: Absolutely, yeah. We absolutely welcome the decision by AG Nessel to pursue justice in this case. You know, Tribar has been, I think it's fair to say, a pretty unscrupulous company that doesn't deserve to stay in business. When we think of some of the most nefarious polluters around the state in recent history, Tribar is right in the mix with the worst offenders.
David Fair: Right. Tribar is responsible not only for the PFAS contamination, but it also had an incident that released some 10,000 gallons of hexavalent chromium into the river. It has repeatedly been warned and cited for violations of environmental ordinance and law. I'm curious. Has that company ever reached out or tried to work with the Watershed Council on the environmental threats it created?
Daniel Brown: Not in a meaningful way. We got requests a few years ago to, I think, basically try to improve their image. But they never said anything to us that indicated that they were going to change their practice in a way that would improve the health or safety to the watershed.
David Fair: In turn, was the Watershed Council able to work with Attorney General Dana Nessel on formulating the civil lawsuit that was actually filed on June 12th?
Daniel Brown: So, we weren't consulted on that, interestingly enough. Over time, there's been a number of the environmental organizations that have a footprint in the Huron River Watershed, so groups like The Ecology Center and MCV and various Sierra Club chapters, ourselves. We were pushing pretty hard on EGLE officials, regulatory officials and the AG's office to take action. We also pulled together a letter that went to the major automakers, the impression on them to cut ties with Tribar or to look at Tribar's practice and the manufacturer of the car parts that were going to those automakers. We had input throughout the process, but we weren't consulted directly in terms of the lawsuit.
David Fair: Our Issues of the Environment conversation continues with Daniel Brown from the Huron River Watershed Council on 89.1 WEMU. Let's talk about what is actually happening right now. Tribar was sold, and that includes the two Adept Plastic facilities in Wixom. The purchaser decided to shutter those facilities and move Tribar Technologies to Howell. But the stormwater running off from those properties continues to contaminate the Huron River with PFAS and PFOS. What is actually is happening at those sites right now?
Daniel Brown: You know, there's a lot of room for improvement, and there is a lot of action that still needs to happen. But before we jump into that, I want to acknowledge that a lot of the actions that EGLE took in 2018 after PFAS was found in fish and discovered throughout the watershed, and, of course, traced back to Tribar and a lot that the orders that originated with EGLE to put filtration in place at Tribar, really had a pretty dramatic improvement on PFAS in the water throughout the river system overall. So, in the months following the installation of filtration in October 2018, we saw PFAS levels--that's one type of PFAS. We saw PFOS levels drop by more than 90, 95%. And where we are today, those levels are down about 99% from where they were in 2018. That dramatic drop in PFAS has been seen as a relative success story across the country because action was taken, and it very clearly showed just what effect Tribar was having on the river system.
David Fair: You did mention the fish in the Huron River. A "do not eat fish" advisory, as you mentioned, took effect back in 2018, and the remediation efforts, as you pointed out, have been underway ever since. Impact efforts to get to that desired zero PFAS contamination level--is that even possible?
Daniel Brown: Yeah. It will take a very long time if it is even possible to get down to zero PFAS. What we're seeing is that PFAS are everywhere around us, even in low amounts. They're in sort of residential consumer goods. It's in things like toilet paper. It's in our pots and pans.
David Fair: Yeah, ubiquitous for sure.
Daniel Brown: Certainly. So, even as we've taken out this major source of PFAS to the river system from Tribar, it's still out there. So, getting down to these levels, sort of below detection limit, getting down at zero PFAS, is going to be extremely challenging if it's even possible. We also know from more recent research that PFAS generally are more toxic than previously thought. And that was essentially the genesis of the revised EPA rules in 2024 that set protective levels of PFAS much, much lower than what had been thought to be protective previously. So, there's been a lot of progress, but we also know that PFAS is far more toxic and far more prevalent in the environment than we knew five, 10 years ago.
David Fair: With that in mind, can you even foresee a time when the "do not eat fish" advisory is lifted?
Daniel Brown: That's a hard question to answer. Certainly, for some places, I think that there will be do not eat fish advisories in place for the foreseeable future. It's hard for me to imagine the levels coming down far enough in all fish species that they'll be lifted entirely. I think what's probably more likely sort of on our horizon here is that many species of fish will recover to a point where the PFOS/PFAS advisories will be lifted, but other species may still be subject to "do not eat fish" or at least advisories that help folks to eat less fish or avoid their consumption as much as possible.
David Fair: We're talking with Huron River Watershed Council Climate Resilience Strategist Daniel Brown on WEMU's Issues of the Environment. At the heart of the AG's lawsuit against Tribar is accountability. Polluter pay laws in the state were gutted during the Engler administration, relieving corporations of having to clean up the messes they create. State Representative Jason Morgan and State Senator Jeff Irwin, both of Ann Arbor, continue to push new polluter pay laws in their respective chambers, but so far without success. Has the council been able to work with those lawmakers to try and at least lobby to get these measures passed?
Daniel Brown: Yes. So, we are very fortunate in the Huron River Watershed to have members of both chambers that have been very proactive on environmental concerns. You mentioned Rep. Morgan and Senator Irwin have really been champions of polluter pay, and they've been extremely communicative and have worked with HRWC and other environmental orgs and have really listened to their constituents throughout this process, so very appreciative of the work that they're doing. And one thing I want to credit both of them for is that they really are looking for pragmatic solutions that go after bad actors. So, the bill package that they've reintroduced, first and foremost, it is designed, in many subtle ways, to go after bad actors while also protecting compliant businesses. So, the entire bill package is geared around trying to protect people and wildlife, but then also making it easier to do brownfield redevelopment, protect good businesses, and improve sort of economic sustainability and security.
David Fair: I'm curious. Your title with the council is "Climate Resilient Strategist". So, perhaps you can better explain this to me. How does perhaps chemical pollution of the Huron River intersect with the efforts to adapt and accommodate the changing climate?
Daniel Brown: That's a great question. So, I have another title, which is "Emerging Contaminant Specialist". What is interesting to me about PFAS and things like microplastics or a lot of these longer-lived contaminant issues that we face, certainly some of them are made worse in many ways by the changes we're seeing with climate change. Climate change is supercharging our storms. That can lead to more runoff, more erosion, and it can impact parts of the watershed that weren't previously impacted in a similar way. So, you can get changes and greater threats. They're all cumulative issues like climate change. As long as we continue to emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, we're going to keep warming the planet, and the problem is going to get worse. As long we continue put PFAS into the environment, as long as we continue use it in consumer and industrial goods, the problem is going to get worse. Same thing goes for microplastics. There's a lot of similarity in how we need to think about solutions and the scale of the problem. These are all global problems that are going to require dedicated action really over decades.
David Fair: And what that means is that we will have to have many more conversations in the months and years ahead. Thank you so much for your time today, Daniel! I do appreciate it!
Daniel Brown: Yeah! Thank you so much, David!
David Fair: That is Daniel Brown. He is Climate Resilience Strategist for the Huron River Watershed Council and our guest on Issues of the Environment. For more information, pay a visit to our website when you get a chance at WEMU.org. Issues of the Environment is produced in partnership with the Office of the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commission. You hear it every Wednesday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR Station, 89.1 WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti.
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