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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Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.
Jacob Palinsky, PalinskyJ@Michigan.gov or 989-370-3053
The former City of Cheboygan Sanitary Landfill is located southeast of the Lincoln Avenue and Eastern Avenue intersection. The property was an unregulated dumping area until operations ceased in 1981. Following closure of the landfill in the 1980’s, a clay cap was installed over filled areas.
In 2019, as a response to an environmental complaint, EGLE collected a round of groundwater samples from two existing on-site monitoring wells (MW-2 and MW-7) that were accessible and suitable for sampling. Various PFAS were detected above criteria in the monitoring well samples. The highest PFAS concentrations were in the sample from MW-7 and are as follows: 37.4 ppt PFOS (compared to 16 ppt) and 16.3 ppt PFOA (compared to 8 ppt).
Groundwater flows north toward Duncan Bay and the Straits of Mackinac’s South Channel. A drain crosses through the southwest corner of the property and extends to the northeast. Drainage ditches surround the property and connect to wetlands located between the property and Duncan Bay/the Straits of Mackinac’s South Channel.
Content updated December 2024.
An aerial view of the site, including boundaries, groundwater flow direction, and monitoring well locations.
The City of Cheboygan maintains a municipal drinking water system sourced from groundwater; however, the system does not extend to the area immediately surrounding the site.
The closest municipal water mains are located along Lafayette Avenue and East State Street. Residential drinking water wells are the primary source of drinking water for properties in the immediate vicinity of the former landfill.
EGLE, DHHS, and local health identified one residential drinking water well downgradient of the site that was sampled in October 2024 and was non-detect for PFAS.
Additional activities may include the installation of temporary monitoring wells on-site to collect supplemental groundwater samples to evaluate PFAS distribution across the site. Due to the available results and distance to nearest drinking water wells, no additional drinking water well sampling is anticipated at this time.