Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.
Peter Van Heest, VanHeestP@Michigan.gov, 616-439-8019
In 2022, a homeowner on Hillsboro Avenue sampled their drinking well water. The concentration of the PFAS compound PFOA in the sample was slightly above the State's drinking water limit (criteria) of 8 ppt. These results were shared with the local and state health departments and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). EGLE sampled nearby homes in February 2023. Three of the five drinking water wells exceeded criteria for either PFOA or PFOS. EGLE expanded the sample area several times to include more homes as more PFAS contamination was detected in wells.
As of October 2026, the drinking wells at 404 homes have been sampled. The highest results were 38 ppt PFOA (compared to 8 ppt) and 34 ppt PFOS (compared to 16 ppt). The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) resampled drinking wells in this area in spring of 2026. There are no known PFAS releases in the area of interest and the source of contamination remains unknown.
Content updated: October 2026.
See an aerial view of the streets included in the awarded grant.
Most of the residents in the area are on private drinking wells. All homes in the sampling area that had detections of PFAS have been offered filters by state and local health departments.
In July 2026, EGLE awarded Cascade Township a grant for $12,150,383 to extend municipal water lines to a portion of the impacted area and to connect the 117 homes in the project area to the municipal water supply. View a map showing the streets included in this grant.
The current funding amount is only enough to address a portion of the impacted area. Because of this, the goal of the current grant project is to provide city water connections to as many homes with PFAS-impacted drinking wells as possible with the available funds. EGLE and Cascade Township are actively attempting to obtain additional funding sources to address more homes with impacted drinking wells that were not covered in the initial grant.
Cascade Township has selected an engineering contractor to design and oversee the watermain construction project under the EGLE grant. Design, engineering, and contracting will likely take all of 2027 to complete. The current estimate for the start of watermain construction is the spring of 2028.
