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State environmental official: PFAS detected at former Decorative Panels International site; municipal water nondetect
Summary
Lisa Cruz, a remediation and redevelopment regional lead with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, told the Alpena City Council on Jan. 6 that EGLE found PFOA and other PFAS compounds in groundwater and onsite lagoons at the former Decorative Panels International property and that the City of Alpenamunicipal water has shown nondetect results in past monitoring.
Lisa Cruz, a remediation and redevelopment regional lead with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), told the Alpena City Council on Monday that state sampling and data provided by the former Decorative Panels International (DPI) site show detections of PFAS in groundwater and in onsite lagoons.
Cruz said DPI, at 416 Ford Avenue, historically housed a particle-board manufacturing plant and closed in early 2024. EGLE received an anonymous complaint in August 2024 that prompted a site walk; inspectors observed a fire-suppression system connected to a tank of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), a common PFAS source. Cruz said DPI is listed as site 299 in the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) inventory.
The state compared six groundwater samples taken from the property to Michigangroundwater criteria for PFOA and other PFAS. "Of those six groundwater samples, four of those samples were above criteria for PFOA," Cruz said. The highest PFOA result reported by Cruz was 14.9 parts per trillion (ppt), compared with Michiganstate criteria of 8 ppt for PFOA. Cruz said those higher detections were mainly within the building footprint; samples taken closer to Ford Avenue had lower detections below state criteria.
Cruz also reported PFAS detections in three onsite…
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