PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The Plainfield Township board is preparing to play hardball with Wolverine Worldwide over the PFAS crisis that has spread through northern Kent County.
The board was expected to vote Monday night on whether to join a federal lawsuit against Wolverine over paying to pipe municipal water to areas where contamination has been found in residential wells.
The township hopes to start work this year extending municipal water into Belmont. It says Wolverine has so far refused to help it pay for the project, which could cost up to $25 million.
The PFAS has spread from Wolverine’s former House Street dump, where the shoemaker buried sludge from its tannery until 1970. It has affected parts Plainfield and Algoma townships, covering an area more than 5 miles long by 5 miles wide. So far, Wolverine has tested the wells of 1,500 homes, finding the likely carcinogen in more than 400, many of those over the state’s limit for safe drinking.
It not only has led to a federal class-action suit, but 100 separate lawsuits in Kent County Circuit Court. Those claims allege the PFAS contamination has led to three deaths, along with miscarriages, cancer and other illnesses.
Plainfield Township also plans to spend up to $400,000 for a carbon treatment system to clean low levels of PFAS from its city water system, which supplies 40,000 people.
Algoma Township says it also wants to extend Plainfield’s water into large areas with tainted wells north of 10 Mile Road NE.
Plainfield officials say Wolverine so far has balked at helping with the costs, forcing it to find other ways to pay for it.
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