Michigan is once again grappling with water issues following a warning issued to two communities over dangerously high levels of industrial chemicals found in their drinking source.
Residents of two Kalamazoo counties will receive bottled water on Friday morning after “high amounts” of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were detected during testing conducted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
A PFAS test yielded 1,410 parts per trillion in their drinking water, 20 times higher than the lifetime health advisory given by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
A recently released study, however, from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the EPA found that the health advisory should likely be far lower.
City officials said they were unsure how the man-made chemicals entered the water source.
Parchment’s water source will be drained over the course of the next two days, after which point residents will be connected to Kalamazoo’s water supply.
Rick Snyder (R) said in a statement that the health of residents would be prioritized in addition to ensuring their access to drinking water.
Reacting to the news, Rep. Fred Upton (R) posted a Facebook statement on Thursday and said he would be meeting with state and local officials to mount a response.
While the dangers posed by the chemicals have been known for some time, documents obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) this spring found that under the Trump administration a number of agencies, including the EPA, sought to suppress a Health Department PFAS chemical study in January.
Pennsylvania is also grappling with severe PFAS contamination.