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Posted on Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 6:33 a.m.

Groundwater cleanup changes could move forward in long-standing Pall Life Sciences case

By Juliana Keeping

This story has been updated to reflect Pall and the state did not meet a Wednesday deadline to agree over changes to a groundwater cleanup plan.

121310_PALL_Roger-Rayle.jpg

Honey Creek, an area where Pall discharges treated groundwater, runs through Roger Rayle's back yard in Scio Township. He has been closely monitoring the clean-up plan.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Groundwater under a portion of Ann Arbor’s Evergreen subdivision would be monitored for the possible human carcinogen 1,4 dioxane rather than cleaned up, under proposed changes to an agreement between the state and Scio Township’s Pall Life Sciences.

And Pall could add as many as four more monitoring well clusters to detect migration of a decades-old swath of tainted groundwater under the west side of Ann Arbor and the southeast corner of Scio Township.

Those and other changes could have been on the way today - if the company and the state had come to an agreement.

The two sides began a private, court-directed dispute resolution process over a year ago to discuss proposed changes to a long-running cleanup plan. A tentative agreement was reached in November, and the Washtenaw County Circuit Court set a Dec. 15 deadline for all parties to agree on modifications to the plan, documents show. But that deadline has passed, an indication evidentiary hearings could be called in mid-February to settle any remaining points of disagreement.

Pall inherited the responsibility to clean 1,4 dioxane pollution created by Gelman Sciences between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s when Pall purchased the company in 1997. Dioxane is an industrial solvent that was used to manufacture medical filters at Gelman.

Today, the pollution — a patchwork of contamination sites some locals call the Gelman plume — fans out in the groundwater from the Pall site at 600 S. Wagner Road both to the east into township and to the west in a swath under the west side of Ann Arbor. The plume is estimated to be roughly a mile wide and three miles long.

Sybil Kolon, a senior analyst with the DNRE, said evidentiary hearings may be called in mid-February. Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Donald Shelton would then have the final say over how the plans move forward.

Asked about the plans via e-mail, Farsad Fotouhi, corporate vice president for Pall and a company environmental engineer, declined to provide specifics.

“Pall is working diligently with the (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) to shepherd the environmental
 remediation to a successful conclusion,” Fotouhi said in the e-mail. “Please direct any questions to the
 MDNRE.”

The plume isn't a health hazard for Ann Arbor residents who use the city water supply. The concern is that it could continue to migrate to Barton Pond, the primary source for city water, according to Ann Arbor officials.

“The number one concern the city has is that nothing about the expansion of the prohibition zone compromises the drinking water supply,” said Matthew Naud, an environmental coordinator for the city.

Under the tentative agreement, the northern border of an existing “prohibition zone” would be expanded to encompass the Evergreen neighborhood. That could mean six homes in the expanded prohibition zone still using wells would have to stop and hook up to the city water supply. Pall would be required to pay.

Currently, thousands of households in the prohibition zone in the northwest section of Ann Arbor can’t use groundwater or dig wells due to concerns over dioxane pollution.

According to Kolon, because some properties exist as township islands within the city of Ann Arbor, the switchover to the municipal water supply would also mean the homes would be annexed to the city.

The plume is a patchwork of various contamination sites with varying degrees of groundwater contamination at different depths amid complex geological conditions.

Under the changes in the tentative agreement, a few of clean-up objectives would change or be eliminated in certain areas.

With the Evergreen subdivision, for example, Pall would prevent contamination concentrations above 2,800 parts per billion instead of purging the water to 85 ppb, the previously agreed-upon standard.

The DNRE is planning to host a meeting where all the changes will be explained, Kolon said. The date hasn't been set.

Concerned residents say they feel somewhat powerless. But they are watching.

Honey Creek, an area where Pall discharges treated groundwater, runs through Roger Rayle’s backyard in Scio Township. Rayle’s been keeping close tabs on the issue for almost two decades; he’s constructed an elaborate, multi-layered data system in Google Earth over the last five years that shows how the dioxane pollution has spread over time.

He is a co-founder and co-chair of a grassroots activist organization called Scio Residents for Safe Water.

The retired software consultant said he’d like the chance to show his 4-dimensional maps to Shelton and other decision-makers. And he wants both parties to show him the science that proves the plume’s moving the way they say it is in the court documents — that’s east, toward the Huron River, where it would be safe for water containing 2,800 ppb of 1,4 dioxane to breach and mix with the surface water.

“Nature doesn’t have any say in establishing a prohibition zone,” he said. “I think it would be better to clean up a lot of the dioxane.”

Juliana Keeping is a health and environment reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter

Comments

Edward Vielmetti

Sun, Feb 13, 2011 : 3:15 p.m.

From an email from the DNRE: The purpose of this note is to inform you that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) and Pall Life Sciences (PLS) have reached agreement in principle on an amendment to the Consent Judgment regarding remediation of the Gelman site. The evidentiary hearing that had been scheduled for February 14, had the parties not reached agreement, has been canceled. Previous updates about the proposed modifications are available at the following link: <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3311_4109_9846_30022-129655--,00.html" rel='nofollow'>http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3311_4109_9846_30022-129655--,00.html</a>

Roger Rayle

Thu, Dec 16, 2010 : 4:46 p.m.

@Dan1737-- The local governments all are members of the CARD group and most weigh in on the important issues with the Pall/Gelman site. But none are parties to the court case where all of the key decisions are made... and the State who is supposed to be representing the citizens here doesn't often bring up local concerns and evidence in the courtroom. Letting this current dispute go to evidentiary hearings (starting on Feb 14, 2011?) is another opportunity to get the reality of the situation before the decision maker, Judge Shelton. The Ann Arbor News archives was given to the Ann Arbor Public Library for future indexing and digitizing. meanwhile, I have my own copies of all Ann Arbor News (and annarbor.com) stories on this issue since the early 1990s and even had them in the Ann Arbor Public Library's Gelman collection until I was asked to remove them a few years ago. But I'm open to sharing them with anyone who wants to see them. Maybe some U-M School of Information or high school students out there would like to take on the task of organizing and indexing them for public access as part of a class project. (I also have lots of content available for middle and high school science fair projects!)

Dan1737

Thu, Dec 16, 2010 : 1:50 p.m.

It's wonderful that Roger Rayle has worked so hard to make some of the data useful with his mapping. But, at the same time, it's disturbing that the state has let this drag out so long without an effective plan in place the public can trust. What's missing from this story is any mention of the involvement, if any, of other levels of government. How are the County, townships, and City of Ann Arbor pressuring the state government to solve this problem? Finally, as a long-term and ongoing issue, it would be nice if AnnArbor.com provided an easy way to look up both current info and the background to the current story. Your keywords used for "topics" are pretty vague, e.g. "Ann Arbor West". How about creating a tag that gets used for all stories on this issue ("Pall-groundwater-pollution"?) and also adding it to old stories so newcomers, too, could get up to speed on this issue?

Speechless

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 11:57 p.m.

The Gelman/Pall dioxane plume is a very serious matter &amp;mdash; a true environmental disaster in our community's backyard. But since it spreads underground so slowly and quietly, it easily remains off the radar for most people in the region. The dangerous plume may not regain the full attention of city residents unless it begins to approach Barton Pond. Roger Rayle has been among the few who have doggedly kept after Gelman/Pall and Michigan's DEQ/DNR offices in a determined effort to get a serious cleanup moving forward. Echoing what others have written here, he deserves recognition for his decades of activism as well as greater awareness for his ongoing plume mapping project. The history of the Gelman plume has been a long and complicated saga. Two background 'prequels,' of sorts, to the above report can be found here: http://ecocenter.org/newsletter/newsletters/200502/200502huron.php http://ecocenter.org/newsletter/newsletters/200410/200410pall.php

Roger Rayle

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 11:10 p.m.

@David-- Maybe my comment was taken down because it was too long... or maybe it was because I used my non-anonymous login. In any case, anyone can see my comments here: http://sites.google.com/site/srsworg/12-15-10-annarbor-com-article. As for Governor-elect Synder, I'm hoping he's more like former Governor Milliken, who set up DNR permit review boards with citizen advocate representation, and less like former Governor Engler, who abolished them... and then split off the DEQ with a director under his direct control eliminating the last vestige of citizen representation (via the Natural Resource Commission.)

David Briegel

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 9:51 p.m.

Why was the most recent post by Roger taken down?

David Briegel

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 9:25 p.m.

And Roger, you want all these things but our govt officials couldn't care less. They have to make Mich a wonderful and inviting place for corporations. Not so much our citizens. "Fox architechs for the henhouses." That is really quite accurate! Andy, Since those govt bureaucrats represent the corporations and NOT the citizens, I am almost ready to abolish them all like the Republicans desire! If they don't represent "we the people", what good do they accomplish? Roger, What type of feedback do you get from the Snyder camp? And Honey Creek is so beautiful! So sad.

Roger Rayle

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 8:49 p.m.

@Vivienne-- Thanks and thanks to your continuing support for an effective, protective, and community-acceptable Pall/Gelman Site cleanup. @actionjackson-- If you're talking about the deep injection well Gelman Sciences built in 1981 and used from 1987-1994 to dispose of untreated dioxane purge water, it was supposed to be about a mile deep into a confined saltwater layer. According to an Ann Arbor News article 8/14/94, Gelman sciences quit using the deep well and plugged it because it "was very expensive to operate". However, this was shortly after the US EPA, who administered the deep well program, was surprised to learn that Gelman had been injecting untreated dioxane purge water into the well as well as apparently injecting some chemicals that weren't allowed for that well. I urge others who have personal experience with the Pall/Gelman Site to enter their comments here... like the gentleman who told me he once dug ditches on the Gelman property but couldn't stay in the trench for more than 20 minutes because of the fumes. (Use an pseudonym if you want to remain anonymous.) @David Briege--The folks who lived across the street from Gelman Sciences and unknowingly drank dioxane in their well water and breathed dioxane int he mist from the Gelman's spray irrigation were the first victims. They were victimized again in court when they tried to sue Gelman Sciences for mysterious health problems. @Alan Goldsmith &amp; @mr_annarbor-- It's true that recent city councils and mayors may not be as engaged on this issue as some in the past, but some staff are... notably, Matt Naud, the City's Environmental Coordinator, who was quoted in this article, and citizen reps like Rita Loch Caruso, who is on the Environmental Commission. It's also important to note that the City tried to intervene in the current court case, but Judge Donald Shelton decided to keep the cases separate even though they involve the same environmental issue. The City of Ann Arbor along with Washtenaw County, Scio Township, Ann Arbor Township, and some citizens are members of the Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane (CARD) which meets regularly to watch over the cleanup and make comments to the DNRE. Not having a local party in the case, we currently provide our comments to the DNRE staff, who pass it up the chain of command, and over to the Attorney General's office, who represents the DNRE in court. So quite a bit gets lost in the process... and with the environmental rule changes from the Engler administration (and perhaps to be extended under the new Governor and AG), it isn't just the fox in charge of the hen house", it's "the foxes are the architects of a new hen house... with special fox-sized holes". @Kathy-- Thanks, you also know what it's like to advocate for common sense solutions. @Andy Jacobs-- It was the DNR (later DEQ, now DNRE, soon to be DNR again) that Chuck Gelman fought. At industry groups, he would say he spent $20 miilion to fight the State at the same time Gelman Sciences was telling the stockholders the cleanup was a $5 million problem. Was it the State's fault that Gelman Sciences called "dioxane" something else in their reports to the state? Perhaps, but testimony in the Gelman vs Dow case, showed that Gelman was in violation of the original 1965 Order of Determination that governed their discharge... sometimes discharging hundreds or thousands of times what was allowed. Be aware that Pall/Gelman has removed more dioxane than they said was down there!... However, they've never accounted for how much is in the belatedly discovered deep E aquifer and is spreading through our neighborhoods. We want the State to require Pall to provide an annual accounting of how much dioxane is left in the groundwater, like they have a couple of times in the past. That way, everyone can see if the numbers balance with how much dioxane they claim to be removing every year and spot any areas where the numbers don't make sense and need more attention. We also want electronic copies (in industry standard format) of all datasets used in any Pall/Gelman analyses, claims, or assertions. And we want electronic copies of their submitted maps with the various map layers (well locations, plume iso-concentration contours, potentiometic lines) as separate geo-coded KML layers that can be opened directly by Google Earth. Also, they need to fill in the dozens of missing well log parameters and sampling data that has been available but left off their supposedly complete data submittals. None of these requests are technically challenging although Pall/Gelman's lawyers would be sure to challenge them in court.

hsgidley

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 5:20 p.m.

Kudos to Roger and all those dedicated to keeping this issue alive. I'm all for less finger pointing and more taking responsibility to clean this mess up.

David Briegel

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 5 p.m.

And so it goes, on and on and on and on.............. Our govt is so ineffectual except when it comes to protecting the big guys, the wealthy and the powerful from us little folks. Pathetic! Oh, by the way, Dow Chemical dumps dioxin into Lake Huron!

mr_annarbor

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 4:20 p.m.

@Alan Goldsmith. Amen, Alan! AnnArbor.Com, why didn't you get comments from the city on this issue?

Linda Diane Feldt

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 3:47 p.m.

I've seen some of the computer mapping that Roger had created, and it tells a compelling story of the spread of this toxin. Thanks for all you do, Roger, and this story needs to remain in the forefront for all of us.

Soothslayer

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 1:11 p.m.

@actionjackson - It's Charles Gelman that ran Gelman sciences and I believe he's still a local resident of Ann Arbor and he indeed did rather well selling to Pall. His story was that he wasn't told by the EPA not to dump 1,4 dioxane on the grounds and that only after years of this did the EPA discover they may have made a mistake. By then it was too late and both spent the remaining years blaming each other to avoid liability and public scrutiny. Who's for smaller government and less regulations now? I hope lesson learned here.

Kathy Griswold

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 12:16 p.m.

Thank you Roger. I hope the judge has an opportunity to consider your data and excellent Google Earth presentation. The Ann Arbor community needs more intelligent advocates like you.

Juliana Keeping

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 10:19 a.m.

I have also added comments this morning from Pall.

Juliana Keeping

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 10:15 a.m.

No meeting today between Pall and the state - just a deadline to submit agreed-upon language regarding changes to the clean-up. I've updated the story to reflect this.-Juliana

David Briegel

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 10 a.m.

Having grown up across the street from Gelman Science (Pall) I have also followed this debacle. Charles Gelman was smarter than the bureaucrats assigned to "regulate" his industry. He really took advantage of them, and thus, all of us. There are still wells in the plume area and landlords rent to unaware tenants. The efforts to require city hook ups seem rather tardy to me. Roger Rayle is to be commended for his efforts on behalf of his fellow citizens.

actionjackson

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 9:09 a.m.

I sure hope that Paul Gellman is happily retired far far away in Costa Rica or somewhere like Hawaii on his hard earned money. I was involved in the construction of that watertower and couldn't believe what I was hearing when the prints showed that they were drilling quarter mile deep wells to dump their toxins. A third grader knows what the substrata of earth looks like. I ended up quitting that job over principle. Of course times were much better and I ended up in a much nicer environment the following week.

Vivienne Armentrout

Wed, Dec 15, 2010 : 8:44 a.m.

Roger Rayle is a true citizen-hero. Thanks for giving him a nod in this story and linking to his site showing the time course of the plume. He has been crunching numbers and following data in minute scrutiny on this issue for many years. Unfortunately, what the company is now proposing is to switch from cleaning up this contamination to simply monitoring it and telling us that we can't use the groundwater in its wake. Ann Arbor has already lost one municipal well to the spread of 1, 4-dioxane and we have another set of wells in the Steere Farm area near the airport. I hope that the plume doesn't get there.