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515 North Union Street (Ithaca, Gratiot County)

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Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.

EGLE site lead

Jessica Tashman, TashmanJ@Michigan.gov or 517-245-3931.

Background

From 1951 to 1986, Wolverine World Wide conducted shoe manufacturing operations at 515 North Union Street in Ithaca, during which the company handled tanned leather, adhesives, solvents, and oils. The site remained vacant until 1999 when Wheeler Plastics began injection molding operations. There is little information available about the operations conducted by Wheeler Plastics before they vacated the property in 2007. In 2009, Clover Ithaca Properties LLC purchased the site. The company began manufacturing operations for inkjet cartridge reconditioning and, now under the name Clover Imaging Group, the company continues these operations. 

In 2018, PFAS was detected at the former Ithaca Sanitary Landfill, which received waste materials from Wolverine during the company’s active operating years. A Baseline Environmental Assessment (BEA) was submitted to EGLE for the facility that showed PFOS as high as 310 ppt (compared to 16 ppt) and PFOA as high as 290 ppt (compared to 8 ppt) in groundwater. PFOS groundwater surface water interface (GSI) criteria was also exceeded. Recently the City of Ithaca identified the facility as a potential source of PFOS to their sanitary sewer. The City of Ithaca sampled the sanitary sewer in October 2018 and the sample contained <10 ppt PFOS.  In March 2023 the sanitary sewer was sampled again and contained 620 ppt PFOS which suggests the sewer is being contaminated by shallow groundwater. There is no current data on groundwater flow direction, and at this time there are no known impacted waterbodies. 

Content last updated January 2024.

Map

View aerial imagery with the boundary of the site outlined.

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Drinking water information

The area is served by municipal water. EGLE is confirming with the local health department that there are no nearby drinking water wells in need of sampling.

Anticipated activities

EGLE is in the process of determining liability at this site. The liable party will be expected to determine the direction of groundwater flow, define the nature and extent of contamination of PFAS on the property, and identify exposure pathways.