DEQ issues Pall cleanup plan

Firm gets a year to ready its own plan

Saturday, September 4, 2004

BY JOHN MULCAHY

News Staff Reporter

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has issued its recommendation for cleaning up the spreading plume of contamination from Pall Life Sciences under west Ann Arbor and Scio Township.

As expected, the plan calls for drilling wells at the leading edge of the migrating contamination - 1,4 dioxane - and pumping the tainted water through a system of underground pipes to a treatment facility. The treated water would then be piped to the Huron River.

The leading edge of contamination is currently under several west Ann Arbor neighborhoods in the Veterans Park area. Some residents of those neighborhoods have joined together to oppose the plan.

Besides calling for extraction wells in the neighborhoods, the DEQ's plan calls for new extraction wells near Pall's headquarters at Wagner and Liberty roads in Scio Township, and at least one new extraction well near the Maple Village shopping center, on Maple Road in west Ann Arbor.

The DEQ has given Pall one year to meet six conditions that would allow it to pursue its own cleanup plan. That plan calls for extracting the contaminated water from a well in Maple Village, treating it with a mobile treatment unit and reinjecting the water into the ground. No extraction wells would be drilled in the neighborhoods.

The conditions include:

Abandoning the Northwest Supply Well used to pump contaminated water and getting the city to eliminate the well head protection area associated with it.

Preventing more contamination from moving beyond Maple Road above the 2,800 parts-per-billion allowed in surface water,

Securing the abandonment and monitoring of water supply wells in areas where the contaminant could go, and providing an alternative drinking water source for people whose wells are closed.

There are also groundwater monitoring conditions and conditions for safe disposal of treated ground water.

"We are encouraged that MDEQ has taken the public concern for the health and safety of the neighborhoods into consideration," said Michael Romatowski, a member of Protect Our Neighbors, a residents' group opposed to putting extraction wells or pipes in the neighborhoods.

However, if Pall can't meet the conditions, the neighborhood residents opposed to the DEQ plan would be "back to square one," Romatowski said.

Farsad Fotouhi, Pall corporate vice president of environmental engineering, said Friday Pall would accept DEQ's option to let the company try its own cleanup plan.

"We are going to do our best to meet these six conditions because we believe our plan is protective of human beings and the environment," Fotouhi said.

However, Fotouhi said the company is opposed to another set of provisions that would require it to prepare for following the DEQ's plan if it cannot meet the six conditions. Those provisions include identifying routes for and planning to secure access for pipelines.

Sybil Kolon, environmental quality analyst for DEQ, said allowing Pall a chance to put its plan in place was prompted in part by public comment on the DEQ plan for wells and pipes in the neighborhoods.

"We felt it made sense (in light of) the company's desires and also addresses the public's concerns," Kolon said.

If Pall's plan is ultimately the one put into practice, some of the dioxane will continue to migrate through the aquifer, dispersing over many years, Kolon said. The DEQ plan aims to reduce the dioxane in all contaminated water to acceptable levels, she said.

The DEQ and Pall will present their plans Wednesday to Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Donald Shelton, who is overseeing the cleanup.

Dioxane got into the aquifers after workers at Gelman Sciences Inc., Pall's predecessor, disposed of it in an unlined lagoon beginning in the 1960s. The aquifer contamination was discovered in the mid-1980s.

John Mulcahy can be reached at jmulcahy@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6858.