Laboratories Offering Home Testing
PFAS MCLs and Drinking Water
Statewide Testing Initiative
PFAS Sites and Areas of Interest
There are two major classes of firefighting foam: Class A and Class B. Class B is also called Aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) and is usually created using PFAS. It is a highly effective foam used for fighting high-hazard flammable liquid fires, like gasoline, oil, and jet fuel.
Official Correspondence
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In January 2024, the Village of Athens’ community public water supply detected PFOA at 4 ppt during their annual PFAS compliance sampling under Michigan’s Safe Drinking Water Act. While this result was below Michigan’s drinking water maximum contaminant level (MCL) at the time, the Village of Athens began to investigate groundwater in the area. The village sampled three nearby wells, and one had a PFOA detection of 15 ppt (compared to 8 ppt). This detection was in a non-drinking water well at a former dairy barn. The other two wells sampled were non-detect for PFAS. The area around this detection is used for farming. There are currently no known PFAS releases in the area.
Groundwater in the area generally flows to the southwest. Nottawa Creek is located just north of the location of the exceedance and flows to the southwest. A PFAS sample was taken from the creek in May of 2024 and had low level detections of PFBA and PFPeA, for which there are no water quality standards.
Content updated April 2025.
View an aerial image of the site.
The Village’s community public water supply wells are within a designated wellhead protection area. While most residents in the village are on public drinking water, residents in the township use private drinking water wells as their primary source of drinking water. EGLE, DHHS, and Calhoun County Health Department (CCHD) evaluated residential wells near the former dairy barn. In April of 2024, EGLE’s contractor sampled water from 12 drinking water wells and repeated sampling at the former dairy barn. Nine drinking water wells were non-detect for all PFAS, two had detections below criteria, and one had detections above criteria. The non-drinking water well at the former dairy barn also had detections above criteria. DHHS provided filters to the three homes with detections. No additional sampling is planned by MPART.
The Village of Athens will continue to monitor their drinking water supply under Michigan’s Compliance Monitoring program.