State tells Pall to come up with cleanup plan, or it will do it

September 4, 2004, 11:37 AM

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has given Pall Life Sciences a year to come up with a plan to clean up underground contamination, or the state will do it.

The state's plan calls for drilling wells and pumping the tainted water through a system of underground pipes to a treatment center, then piping the treated water into the Huron River.

But some residents oppose drilling new wells, and Farsad Fotouhi, Pall corporate vice president of environmental engineering, told The Ann Arbor News that Pall would accept the 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.

Opponents of the state plan acknowledge that if Pall can't meet the DEQ's conditions within a year, they will be "back to square one," said Michael Romatowski, a member of Protect Our Neighbors, a residents' group opposed to putting extraction wells or pipes in the neighborhoods.

Sybil Kolon, environmental quality analyst for DEQ, said the decision to allow Pall a chance to put its plan in place was prompted in part by public reaction to 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.

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

The DEQ plan aims to reduce the dioxane in all contaminated water to acceptable levels, Kolon said.

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

To meet the DEQ's requirements, Pall's plan would have to meet six conditions. Among them is extracting the contaminated water from a well in Maple Village, treating it and reinjecting it into the ground. The company also would be required to secure the abandonment and monitoring of water supply wells in areas where the contaminant could go, and provide an alternative drinking water source for people whose wells are closed.

The leading edge of contamination is currently under several west Ann Arbor neighborhoods in the Veterans Park area.

------

Information from: The Ann Arbor News, http://www.mlive.com/aanews