The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has rejected a consent agreement regarding the 1,4 Dioxane plume in our area.
Board Chair Jason Morgan said the polluter, Gelman Sciences, failed to address how it would stop the spread of the plume in Ann Arbor Township and included clauses in the agreement that would’ve allowed them to get out of the agreement without fully cleaning the plume. Morgan explains another issue the board had with the proposed agreement.
Board Chair Jason Morgan: Discharge of treated water into the Sister Lakes here in Washtenaw County. This would have essentially taken unpolluted lakes and allowed discharge of treated water, but still inclusive of some level of Dioxane, into those lakes.
Morgan says, since the consent agreement was rejected, the county can continue to try to negotiate with the polluter in or out of court, or consider the possibility of asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate the plume a Superfund site.
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— Jorge Avellan is a reporter for 89.1 WEMU News. Contact him at 734.487.3363 or email him javellan@emich.edu