Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.
Mike Jury, JuryM1@Michigan.gov, 517-242-9578
In the spring of 2024, EGLE received funding from an EPA Emerging Contaminants Small or Disadvantaged Community grant to collect residential well samples in two areas in Michigan, one of which is in Blair Township. Funding was used to sample drinking water wells in the area identified on the map. This area was selected because there are numerous homes downgradient of a fire training center, and firefighting foam containing PFAS was sometimes used at fire training centers. EGLE’s contractor AECOM collected drinking water well samples from residents living near the fire training center who granted access.
Groundwater is believed to be moving in a northeast direction. Soils are predominantly sand and gravel, making the residential wells in this area more vulnerable to contamination than if there was a protective clay layer.
Content posted May 2025
In the summer of 2024, EGLE, DHHS, and local health (project team) identified wells downgradient of the fire training center to be sampled. Between August 2024 and February 2025, EGLE sampled 48 drinking water wells. Throughout the sampling events, EGLE made several attempts to obtain permission from property owners who did not originally respond to the letter by knocking on doors and leaving door hangers. Of the 48 drinking water wells sampled, 35 were non-detect, and 13 had detections below criteria. DHHS provided information to property owners whose wells had detections about how to reduce exposure to PFAS.
The drinking water well at the fire training center was sampled on August 24, 2023, and the result was 2 ppt PFHxS, which is below Michigan drinking water criteria of 51 ppt.
Because no drinking water wells had detections above PFAS criteria, no additional sampling is planned by MPART.
