WASHINGTON — Years after the Flint water crisis drew national attention, another water pollution issue has emerged in House races in Michigan.
Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in Kalamazoo County after drinking water in the town of Parchment tested at over 20 times the EPA’s health advisory limit for two forms of PFAS — PFOS and PFOA — which were phased out of production in 2000 amid concerns over their risks to human health.
Of 38 sites the state deemed contaminated by the chemicals, 23 are in GOP-held districts.
Angell, who lives in Republican Rep. Justin Amash’s district, said he has been contacted by nearly every candidate running in the region and “their main platform right now is water,” he said.
Democratic turnout in the state’s primary election, held less than two weeks after Kalamazoo County’s contamination was first announced, may be evidence of how PFAS is animating voters, especially in districts with contamination sites, he said.
Other GOP-held congressional districts with contamination sites found in the last year saw similar jumps, including Amash’s.
“When you have folks in Detroit and Flint struggling to have access to clean drinking water, and you have folks in Plainfield Township and (others) grappling with the same issue, it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican,” said the League of Conservation Voters’ Allison.
“What only matters is if you can trust the water that’s in your glass.” Few Republicans in Congress have been so quick to respond to news of PFAS contamination in their district as 16th-term Rep. Fred Upton, whose district includes Parchment.
Upton’s opponent, Democrat Matt Longjohn, criticized the bill for focusing only on PFAS contamination resulting from federal sites such as military bases, characterizing the Republican as avoiding “a burden placed on businesses (so) that they would regulated and held accountable for their actions.” “But he does recognize that that would be something we should pay for as taxpayers if it was the federal government who was involved in contaminated property,” Longjohn said.
In September, Upton’s 6th District seat was added to the Democrats’ map of targets to flip, shortly after Roll Call reported that internal polling by Littlejohn found him 5 percentage points behind Upton head-to-head.