ROCKFORD, MI- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality confirmed Friday, Oct. 13, it will test the water at all Rockford Public Schools not on municipal water, at the request of Superintendent Michael Shibler.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, East Rockford Middle School students and staff began using only bottled water for consumption, after leather and rubber scraps were discovered at a former Wolverine World Wide tannery dump site near the school.
Water samples from the 800-student school, located at 8615 9 Mile Road NE in Cannon Township, were taken Wednesday, Oct. 11, to be tested for toxic chemicals. The disposal area is a half-mile away between 9 and 10 Mile roads.
Rockford Public Schools is using bottled water at East Rockford Middle until test results determine if toxic chemicals are in the drinking water from a former tannery dumpsite.
Only Lakes is within two miles of East Rockford.
This year, toxic chemicals from industrial waste the global shoe company dumped during the 1960s at another dump site turned up in nearby private residential drinking water wells.
One well on House Street tested 542 times above that level in August.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, Shibler informed parents at Lakes Elementary that DEQ had agreed to test its water, if test results revealed East Rockford’s water was unsafe.