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Public meeting announced to provide update on Wurtsmith AFB contamination in Oscoda
April 14, 2017
For Immediate Release: April 14, 2017
LANSING, Mich. – On Tuesday, April 25, 2017, at the Oscoda Methodist Church at 120 West Dwight Avenue in Oscoda, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will host an open house and public meeting to provide updates about perfluorinated compound contamination in groundwater and drinking water wells at and near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.
Officials from MDHHS, District Health Department No. 2, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Air Force will be available for one-on-one conversations from 2 to 4 p.m., prior to the community meeting which will begin at 6 p.m.
In December 2015, the U.S. Air Force and MDEQ discovered perfluorinated compound (PFCs) in drinking water wells near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base. Additional private wells continue to be sampled for PFCs. Results and recommendations are being provided to individual well owners as those results become available.
Property owners whose drinking water wells have been impacted by PFCs from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base are being offered alternate water while a permanent solution is being developed. In October 2016, MDHHS 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, visit www.mi.gov/wurtsmith.
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