Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.
Shelby Bahaw, BahawS@Michigan.gov, or 517-388-4899.
The Michner Plating site is located along the east shore of the Grand River at 506 North Mechanic Street in the city of Jackson. The site was operated as a plating shop from the 1930s until it became inactive in 2007. In 2015 Jackson County obtained the property through foreclosure and discovered over 1,100 drums, vats, totes, and other containers potentially containing cyanide, zinc cyanide, nickel chloride, chromic acid, hydrogen peroxide, sulfuric acid, ignitable wastes, reactive wastes and other chemicals.
Following the discovery, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) conducted a time-sensitive removal of the chemical-containing drums and totes. The contaminated soil and groundwater identified on the site is likely the result of the historical release of hazardous substances to the environment over the course of the historical operations.
The site also has detected concentrations of chlorinated solvents, which may pose a vapor intrusion risk to the on-site building and adjoining properties. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) tested this site for PFAS due to the historical operations and their current investigation of other contaminants at the site.
Content posted December 2019.
Nearby properties are serviced by municipal water, which comes from wells approximately 2.5 miles upstream of this site. EGLE has sampled all municipal water supplies for PFAS. View the results for the city of Jackson here. Private drinking water wells are known to exist about 1 to 1.5 miles downstream of the site. While preliminary investigations show that the groundwater on site is flowing towards the Grand River, sampling results at various locations on the Grand River were below the surface water quality values suggesting that the PFAS contamination has not migrated offsite. EGLE will be reviewing location and depth information on the private drinking water wells located downstream of the site.
EGLE will continue investigating contaminants other than PFAS on-site as part of the overall investigation of the site.
