From our media partner at WOOD TV:
PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Even the scientists were shocked by what they found in Sandy Wynn-Stelt’s drinking water in July.
Now she’s wondering whether some of it could be coming from a recently reported illegal dump site next door to her home.
“I’m ground zero,” Wynn-Stelt said.
For 24 years, she has lived directly across the street from Wolverine Worldwide’s former legal landfill on House Street NE in Belmont. Chemicals used in waterproofing shoes have been found at several wells in the area.
It has led to sleepless nights.
“Absolutely. Every night,” Wynn-Stelt said. “Because you think that you try to eat healthy, you drink water, you do all those things, and then it turns out that you’re not supposed to drink the water, that it’ll kill you.”
The first time a Wolverine consultant tested her drinking water, in mid-July, it had 27,000 parts per trillion of a toxic chemical known as PFOS, which was in the Scotchgard that Wolverine used on its shoes for decades. The federal Environmental Protection Agency says the chemical could lead to birth defects, liver and thyroid problems, and cancer.
The EPA limit for drinking water is 70 parts per trillion.
“So they came back and tested it again and this last time I think it was closer to 38,000,” Wynn-Stelt said.
That’s 542 times the allowable limit.
“For 20 years, I’ve been drinking pretty much straight Scotchgard,” Wynn-Stelt said.
Click for more on the story courtesy of our media partner at WOOD TV.