CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The same PFAS-laced firefighting foam that has polluted lakes, rivers and wells around Air Force bases was used extensively at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport, Target 8 has found.
Three former Ford Airport fire chiefs told Target 8 the likely carcinogen drained into the ground untreated. They said the airport and the state should test the wells of nearby homes.
"They need to identify the plume, if there is one, and they need to immediately advise the people downstream to stop drinking the water," former Airport Fire Chief Glen Lathers said.
There are more than 400 homes in a neighborhood downhill from the airport and along the Thornapple River, most built in the 1970s and 1980s, some worth more than $1 million, most with wells.
A tip led Target 8 to track down the former airport fire chiefs, two of them in Florida, who said they used the foam mostly for training.
"We used it a lot, all the time," said Bryan Kimble, who started as a firefighter at the airport in 1979 and served as chief from 2004 to 2010.
Lathers, who was chief from 1979 to 1989, said his department used the foam "probably a thousand times or so." He said he ordered 1,800 gallons a year during his decade there.
Full story: WOOD TV