Debbie Dingell

The Trump administration announced Thursday, March 12, that it had added a miles-long groundwater plume containing a cancer-causing industrial solvent in the Ann Arbor region to its list of Superfund sites, meaning the federal government can step up remediation and clean-up efforts and attempt to recover costs from the responsible parties.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, had spent several years working toward getting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to add the so-called Gelman plume in Washtenaw County to the Superfund National Priorities List.

“Listing the Gelman site on the NPL will help bring additional federal tools, authorities, oversight and resources to support a cleanup and long-term strategy to protect public health," said Dingell, who credited EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel "for recognizing the urgency of this issue."

"This step reflects years of persistence from people who refused to let this problem be ignored," Dingell added.

According to EPA, from 1963 to 1986, now-shuttered Gelman Sciences Inc., a medical filter maker, discharged wastewater containing 1,4-dioxane, a solvent that is known to increase the risk of liver and kidney damage and cancer, into surrounding ponds allowing it to migrate into local groundwater. The underground plume is believed to be 3-4 miles long and 1-mile wide, but the agency said there is no known human exposure to the contamination.

EPA's website says the company already has an agreement with Michigan requiring it to pump out and treat contaminated groundwater to lower the concentration of the solvent and prevent any use of the groundwater or wells by residents while connecting affected properties to municipal water. But that agreement doesn't require the previous owners to restore the groundwater to a usable condition or keep it from potentially migrating to the Huron River.

"With this NPL listing, EPA can take action to more effectively control the plume to reduce eastern migration and further degradation of the Ann Arbor aquifer and ensure uncontaminated portions of the aquifer can be used for future commercial and/or residential use," EPA said on its website.

"With this Superfund designation, EPA will use its statutory authorities to hold the company responsible for near- and long-term actions to more expeditiously address possible risks to human health and the environment,” said Vogel, the head of EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago. “Thanks to Administrator Lee Zeldin’s leadership, EPA is making good on its promise to the community to protect drinking water sources and ensure clean drinking water to families living in and near the community.”

Environmental leaders praised the listing.

“For decades, the toxic 1,4-dioxane plume left behind by Gelman Sciences has threatened the Huron River watershed and the drinking water relied on by families across the Ann Arbor region,” said Lisa Wozniak, CEO & president of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “Adding this site to the Superfund list is a major victory for public health and the environment."

"The Superfund listing is a victory – a critical step,” added Daniel Brown, climate resilience strategist for the Huron River Watershed Council. “But the plume is a constant reminder of exactly why we need to reinstitute strong polluter pay laws so that other Michigan communities won’t suffer similar contamination."

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on X @tsspangler.