CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The state on Wednesday sampled the Thornapple River for possible PFAS contamination after Target 8 found mounds of foam building up on a riverbank.
The foam, which a state Department of Environmental Quality called "unusual," appears similar to what has formed on the Rogue River, just below the Rockford Dam.
The Rogue River foam had extremely high levels of PFAS, a likely carcinogen, leading to a health advisory against ingesting it.
Contractors for the DEQ used cheesecloth and Ziploc bags to scoop up the foam from the Thornapple River, just below the Cascade Dam. They also took water samples.
The DEQ said photographs of foam on the river taken by Target 8 prompted Wednesday's testing.
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One shows foam piled high along the east bank, directly below the dam.
It was enough to worry some residents. Some said they had never seen the foam so thick on this part of the river.
"A couple weeks ago, I was out there and we had a stack of foam on the edge of the water that was probably a foot high," said Marilyn Otte, who lives on the east bank of the river near the dam.
Another photograph shows it clinging to a stick.