KENT COUNTY, MI — The Kent County Department of Public Works will pursue a legal strategy against Wolverine Worldwide because of PFAS contamination discovered at a landfill that a county commissioner believes can be traced to the company.
The discovery of the contamination means a new filtration station is required that will cost millions of dollars to build, and $500,000 per year to operate, County Commissioner and Public Works Board Member Phil Skaggs said.
On Aug. 6, at the Board of Public Works meeting, Skaggs put forward a motion to pursue a legal strategy, including potential litigation, against Wolverine to recover past and projected future costs of addressing PFAS-contaminated tannery waste dumped by the company at the North Kent Landfill in the 1980s, according to Skaggs.
The motion passed 7-0, he said, and the board will begin moving forward with the effort.
“I think the burden of cleaning up industrial toxic waste ought to be on the entity that created the pollution,” Skaggs said in an interview with MLive on Friday, Aug. 14. “We need to hold the polluters accountable and not allow them to transfer that burden to taxpayers.”
There is documentary evidence from the DPW that tannery sludge including PFAS sludge was dumped at the landfill, Skaggs said. The contention of some, Skaggs said, is that PFAS could have come from other sources, such as farm fields where PFAS materials were deposited.
Related: Wolverine dumped sludge in North Kent Landfill, records show
The landfill had a short life, he said, opened by the Department of Public Works in 1977 and closed in 1986.
“We have recently discovered high levels of PFAS in landfill leachate (rain water that lands on the landfill and drains or ‘leaches’ through the landfill picking up dissolved and suspended material along the way; in a lined landfill, it is collected and sent to a waste-water treatment plant) and in the groundwater at nearby test and household wells,” Skaggs said in a Facebook post.
Because of the demonstrated adverse health effects of PFAS, once the contaminants were found in test wells, Skaggs said the Board of Public Works and its director and staff worked to support the nearby residents, supplying bottled water systems and whole-house filtration systems.
“Now, we are building a filtration station to filter out all PFAS from the leachate before discharging it to the North Kent Sewer System. The station will cost over $3 million to build and around $500,000 to operate annually, he said, and the spending has been approved.
“We believe this contamination can be traced directly to the tons of tannery sludge Wolverine dumped at the landfill and are seeking to recover past and future costs of PFAS mitigation from the company,” Skaggs said.
The board is tapping into money set aside for legacy landfill cleanup to pay for it, Skaggs said, but he believes the polluter should pay.
The board action includes sending a letter to Wolverine to settle the matter for an amount of money, and Skaggs said the hope is it will be handled fairly outside of court.
“But one way or another we need to make sure that polluters are held accountable,” he said. If the company decides not to go the settlement route, the legal department is authorized to sue within 50 days, Skaggs said.
PFAS -- sometimes called a “forever chemical” -- is traced to sludge waste from Wolverine’s old leather tannery in Rockford, which began using 3M Scotchgard in 1958.
The company has been sued multiple times over PFAS contamination.
In one settlement, Wolverine agreed to pay a $69.5 million for contaminating residential drinking wells and the environment. The money will be used to connect about 1,000 homes to municipal water.
A public relations firm representing Wolverine said the company declined to comment on the issue at this time.
Read more:
North Kent Landfill PFAS results spark residential well testing
Judge approves Wolverine PFAS water settlement
1.9 million Michigan residents drink some PFAS as evidence mounts about its dangers
Michigan sues 17 chemical companies for PFAS contamination
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