After decades of local effort, the Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Gelman plume in Ann Arbor and Scio Township as a Superfund Site.
Getting added to the Superfund priorities list frees up federal dollars to go towards the site cleanup.
Ann Arbor Congresswoman Debbie Dingell has spent years lobbying to get the federal designation. She says the EPA can do things local and state governments cannot.
“And we’re going to work with them to try to get this cleaned up to the best state that can be done to ensure that the drinking water is safe. It doesn’t keep spreading to Ann Arbor’s drinking water source, and that public health is protected.”
From the mid-60's to the 80's, Gelman Sciences discharged dioxane into surrounding ponds creating the plume. It migrated into the aquifers supplying drinking water.
With the Superfund designation, the EPA can take action to prevent the plume from spreading into the Huron River.
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