Beginning Thursday, October 12, students of East Rockford Middle School were provided with precautionary bottled water until the results of groundwater sampling for Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are obtained. There is currently no evidence of PFC contamination in the school’s drinking water, but as a precaution, the drinking water wells have been sampled and bottled water will be provided until test results are returned. Testing is being done at this location because a historic disposal area containing leather scraps has been discovered nearby.
Wolverine World Wide (Wolverine), in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), and the Kent County Health Department (KCHD), is providing students, faculty, and staff with bottled water until Wolverine completes groundwater sampling for PFCs and obtains the results.
At this time, eight properties adjacent to the subject area will also be included in the testing area as a precautionary measure.
“Any information will be shared with residents via the Township’s Facebook page, as soon as it is available,” said Cannon Township Supervisor Steve Grimm.
Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, all drinking fountains will be disabled and Wolverine will provide bottled water to the school starting Thursday morning for consumption and cooking, and will do so until we know the status of our well water.
Please be assured that until we receive the test results, only bottled water will be used for consumption and cooking at the school.

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — What’s safer, tap water or bottled water? The answer may surprise you, experts say.
In a move towards “greener” schools and a sustainable, eco-friendly water industry, Millburn Public School administrators will soon have water bottle filling stations available for all of their students.
“Thanks to the generosity and efforts of PTOs and the BOE, water bottle filling stations are now available at all Millburn Township elementary schools and Millburn Middle School,” administrators announced last week.
Stations at Millburn High School will be installed soon, administrators said.
Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration; whereas tap water is regulated more strictly by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Bottled water consumers are often drinking tap water that has been processed, packaged and shipped, damaging our environment and ultimately costing up to thousands of times the price of drinking this same water straight from the tap.
Bottling companies often take water from sources that local residents depend on for drinking and recreation, thus reducing the availability of local resources for others that depend on them.
One study found that the manufacture, production and transportation of bottled water uses 1,100 to 2,000 times more energy than the treatment and distribution of tap water.
Millburn isn’t the only Essex County school district to recently install water bottle filling stations.

WLNS – Companies bottling drinking water from Michigan sources would face a per-gallon fee under legislation introduced today by state Rep. Peter Lucido.
The 5-cent per gallon fee would help compensate the state for the loss and sale of one of its most treasured natural resources, Lucido said.
Lucido’s bill relates only to water used for drinking water by bottling companies. It would not apply to water withdrawn and sprinkled back into the ground.
Revenue from the fee would be restricted for use on infrastructure improvements throughout Michigan.
According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Nestle draws approximately 1.1 million gallons of water a day from its four pumping locations in Michigan.
Lucido said a 5-cent per gallon fee would amount to $55,000 a day, or more than $20 million a year.
House Bill 5133 has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee.

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Those schools, Alderman Road Elementary School and Gray’s Creek Elementary School, are both about four miles away from a plant owned by Chemours, the company under investigation for the discharge of GenX.
“Cumberland County will start providing bottled water to our school until we receive test results from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality,” the phone message stated.
“We need good water,” she said.
The schools also use wells, and a DEQ spokeswoman told CBS North Carolina public concern from citizens prompted the tests.
Research into GenX is in the early stages, and its effects on the human body are unclear.
Beyond the schools, the state is testing the water of two nearby lakes, Marshwood Lake and Point East Lake. It also testing the water supply going to a community baseball park north of Marshwood Lake.
For parents like Miller, they want to know the water their children drink is safe.
That school gets city water and is not on the list.

Puerto Rico (CNN)After Hurricane Maria toppled the bridge that connects him to the rest of civilization and ripped the roof and walls off his house here in the central mountains of Puerto Rico, Ramón Sostre raised a weathered American flag above the wreckage.
More than a third of households in the US territory, including much of Sostre’s community, are without reliable drinking water at home.
On Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, said it had 1,700 personnel deployed in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, which also were hit by Hurricane Maria.
In their defense, FEMA officials point out also that 20,000 other federal staff and military have been deployed to respond to Hurricane Maria.
There are 3.4 million people in Puerto Rico, and about 35% of households were without access to safe drinking water as of Tuesday, according to government estimates.
Yet FEMA has provided 23.6 million liters — 6.2 million gallons — of bottled water and bulk water since the storm hit on September 20, said Justo Hernandez, FEMA’s deputy federal coordinating officer.
It’s a situation where you really should be drinking bottled water.
CNN has reported that people are breaking through a fence marked "danger" to pull water from a Superfund site in an area known to be contaminated with industrial chemicals linked to cancer.
So I might as well drink this water," one resident said.
"They need water.

The city of Sacramento’s Department of Utilities sent notices to residents north of Interstate 80, south of Main Avenue, east of Pell Drive and west of Norwood Avenue cautioning them not to consume tap water until further notice.
Letter sent to residents about the unsafe water alert.
But out of an abundance of caution, we’re asking people not to drink in meantime while we figure it out,” Tucker said.
The city has delivered 5,000 cases of water bottles to area schools and will send at least 2,000 more to Robla Park for nearby residents, Tucker said.
Boiling, freezing, adding disinfectants and other household treatments will not make the water safe, according to the notice. An update is expected to be released at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Tucker said.
Map of the affected area.
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The ban represents the culmination of efforts by the Kick the Water Bottle Committee, a group of students who since last year have been introducing their peers to the idea of reducing their carbon footprintby using reusable water bottles at the school’s water fountains.
"I think it was a good way to get rid of that habit."
During the weeklong stay, conservation of water was promoted by limiting showers and other methods, said Romanos.
They were persuasive. The school community banned bottles at the beginning of this school year.
During their research, committee members were shocked to learn that many recycled plastic bottles don’t always end up getting recycled, said Samantha Sivulka, another senior involved with the initiative.
"Even if you recycle, they get sent to landfills anyway," said Sivulka. "It’s not a permanent solution to a big problem."
In addition to reducing plastic waste, committee members have also tried convincing their peers to use reusable water bottles by showing them how much money they would save.
However, as the year went on, students got used to reusable bottles.

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.

East Rockford Middle School disabled their drinking fountains Thursday after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality tested their well for contaminants from an old dumping site used by Wolverine Worldwide. Friday, Dr. Michael Shibler, Superintendent for Rockford Public Schools said they’re now testing water at three other schools: Crestwood, Lakes, and Cannonsburg Elementary. Those schools all use water from wells.
Wanda Barrentine, a Rockford resident, came home Thursday to bottled water and two $50 Meijer gift cards courtesy of Wolverine Worldwide, but says the gesture won’t take away the years of possible harm endured by her family.
“I used to exercise a lot and would drink a lot of water, and maybe this is the culprit,” Stanton said.
After talking with Wanda, she allowed FOX 17 NEWS to walk her property, and it didn’t take long for the crew to locate what she now believes to be a former dump site. The area is littered with hunks of leather hides and scraps, rubber soles, and heavy machinery.
Wanda said the test results for her home should come in four weeks.

Clinton Township’s government workers and area residents have donated more than $1,000 in cash and 120 cases of bottled water to aid the people of Puerto Rico impacted by Hurricane Maria.
Township Clerk Kim Meltzer sent out a memo earlier this month to the 300 employees asking for water donations.
This past Friday marked the end of the drive.
“The employees of Clinton Township have shown it isn’t hard for them to make a difference when given an opportunity,” Melzter said.
Officials have said about 56 percent of customers of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority had water. About 15 percent of the island’s population has had electricity restored.
Intensive care and surgical trauma units have double backups to maintain electricity supplies.
Officials are working on an aggressive plan to restore 95 percent of the electricity by Christmas, accelerating the timeline from previous estimates of six months to a year.
At least 48 people died as a result of the massive storm.