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MDHHS announces drinking water meetings to update community near the former Wurtsmith AFB in Oscoda

For Immediate Release: October 18, 2016

LANSING, Mich. –The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) will host an open house and public meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016, to provide updates about perfluorinated compound (PFC) contamination in drinking water at and near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.  The meetings will be held at the Oscoda Methodist Church at 120 West Dwight Avenue in Oscoda.

The open house will have staff from MDHHS, District Health Department No. 2, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the U.S. Air Force available for one-on-one conversations from 2 to 4 p.m. The community meeting will begin at 6 p.m. 

In December 2015, the U.S. Air Force and MDEQ discovered PFCs in drinking water wells near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base. Additional private wells continue to be sampled for PFCs. As PFC results from the private wells become available, those results are being provided to the individual well owners along with recommendations.

Property owners whose drinking water well has been impacted by PFCs from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base are being offered alternate water while a permanent solution is worked out.  MDHHS has recently recommended that the list of well owners being offered alternate water be expanded to include those properties between Van Ettan Lake and Lake Huron, from the US23/F41 split extending north to Chippewa Road. 

PFCs are chemicals that are used in fire-fighting foams, non-stick (Teflon) manufacturing, electroplating, and textiles. They are of concern because they stay in the environment for a long time and enter the food chain, which may result in health hazards to people. 

For more information about MDHHS activities near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, go to www.mi.gov/wurtsmith

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