PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Plainfield Township will play hardball with Wolverine Worldwide over the PFAS crisis that has spread through northern Kent County.
The township board voted Monday night to file a lawsuit against Wolverine over paying to pipe municipal water to areas where chemical 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.
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.
The contamination has not only led to a federal class-action suit, but also 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.
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