PFAS - an Extremely Dangerous Class of Chemicals in Michigan

From Merit Laboratories:
The number of sites with PFAS contamination in Michigan continues to grow.  The MDEQ has compiled a listing of these PFAS sites along with a map  that have been identified as having PFAS levels that are potentially impacting human health and the environment .  The sites, which are found at locations throughout Michigan, include:

Adams Plating (Lansing)
Alpena Combat Readiness Center (Alpena)
Alpena Hide and Leather (Alpena)
Ann Arbor Municipal Water Treatment Plant (Ann Arbor)
Belmont: House Street and Herrington Avenue (Rockford)
Camp Grayling Air Airfield (Grayling)
Central Sanitary Landfill (Pierson)
Coldwater Landfill (Flint)
Clinton River (Mt. Clemens)
Colbath Road (Oscoda)
Defense Fuel Supply Point (Escanaba)
Grayling Municipal Wells (Grayling)
Huron Shores Regional Water Authority (Tawas)
K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base (Gwinn)
Lake St. Clair (Mt. Clemens)
Lapeer Plating (Lapeer)
Lapeer Wastewater Treatment Plant (Lapeer)
Loud Drive (Oscoda)
McDonald Store Fire, F-41 (Oscoda)
Oscoda Area Schools, River Road (Oscoda)
Pine Lake Street Gas Tanker Spill/M-60 (Howard Township)
Plainfield Township Water Treatment Plant (Plainfield)
RACER Plants 2, 3, and 6 (Lansing)
Roosevelt Refinery (Mt. Pleasant)
State Disposal Facility (Plainfield)
Van Etten Lake (Oscoda)
Whispering Pines MHC (Oscoda)
Wolverine Tannery (Rockford)
Wurtsmith Air Force Base (Oscoda)

Michigan PFAS Sites

PFAS compounds have been used in the manufacturing of carpet, clothing, shoes, cookware, packaging, oil and water repellents, furniture, take-out food containers, and many additional products. PFAS chemicals are persistent and bioaccumulate. Persistent means they do not break down in the environment and bioaccumulate refers to the process of building up over time in the blood and organs.


Photo: MLive | Garret Ellison

https://pfasproject.com/2018/11/03/updated-all-known-pfas-sites-in-michigan/

Blocked report drops PFAS safety level into single digits
https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/06/atsdr_pfas_toxprofiles_study.html

In rare move, DEQ staff urge veto on weakened cleanup law

In rare move, DEQ staff urge veto on weakened cleanup law

LANSING, MI — Eighty-two staff members at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have taken the highly rare step of publicly opposing lame duck legislation they say would only benefit polluters at the expense of citizens, and which has “no basis in the protection of health and the environment.”


Young's Environmental workers clean up a Wolverine World Wide dumpsite on MDOT property off House Street in Belmont on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. Barrels containing tannery waste and animal hides were removed from the property. (Neil Blake | MLive)

https://www.mlive.com/news/2018/12/in-rare-move-deq-staff-urge-veto-on-weakened-cleanup-law.html

Drawdown

The most important book of our times:

Project Drawdown is the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. We did not make or devise the plan—the plan exists and is being implemented worldwide. It has been difficult to envision this possibility because the focus is overwhelmingly on the impacts of climate change. We gathered a qualified and diverse group of researchers from around the world to identify, research, and model the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change. What was uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global greenhouse gas emissions within thirty years. The research revealed that humanity has the means and techniques at hand. Nothing new needs to be invented, yet many more solutions are coming due to purposeful human ingenuity. The solutions we modeled are in place and in action. Humanity’s task is to accelerate the knowledge and growth of what is possible as soon as possible.

Drawdown is a message grounded in science; it also is a testament to the growing stream of humanity who understands the enormity of the challenge we face, and is willing to devote their lives to a future of kindness, security, and regeneration. The young girl here is from the Borana Oromo people, who reside in the Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy in northern Kenya. Her picture has been our talisman, calling us daily to the work that we do.

The solutions are available for download in Excel tables and PDF: https://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank


The homepage is Drawdown

The entire book is available for the bargain price of  under US$ 15.00:

https://www.amazon.com/Drawdown-Comprehensive-Proposed-Reverse-Warming-dp-0143130447/dp/0143130447/

New NASA research: East Antarctica’s coast looses ice cover

New NASA research: A group of glaciers spanning one-eighth of East Antarctica’s coast have begun to lose ice over the past decade, hinting at widespread changes in the ocean.




A glacier in East Antarctica, as seen during an Operation IceBridge flight in November 2013. Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger



More glaciers in East Antarctica are waking up – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

Act on climate change to cut 'outrageous' pollution deaths - WHO | Zilient

KATOWICE, Poland, Dec 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Fighting climate change is one of the best ways to improve health around the world, and the benefits of fewer deaths and hospitalisations would far outweigh the costs of not acting, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

A woman covers her face during a period of fog and air pollution in Skopje, Macedonia December 04, 2018

REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

Act on climate change to cut 'outrageous' pollution deaths - WHO | Zilient

Luxembourg to Be First Country to Offer Free Mass Transit

Free mass transportation helps to reduce car use, which in turn reduces air pollution. The United Nations’ Global Goals calls on countries to improve air quality both to lift health outcomes and mitigate climate change.




Luxembourg to Be First Country to Offer Free Mass Transit

Tell your State Representative: vote NO on SB 1211

Earlier today, the state Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 1211, the Wetlands Destruction Act, by a margin of 23-14. Now, the bill is headed to the state House, and we expect them to vote any day. SB 1211, also known as the Wetlands Destruction Act, would remove protections of 70,000 Michigan wetlands, or nearly half of the wetlands in each Michigan county.



Tell your State Representative: vote NO on SB 1211

Earlier, I wrote this to our Senator Dale W. Zorn, who was one of only 3 republican senators to vote against the bill.

Dear Senator Zorn

I am one of your constituents and I am deeply worried about Senator Tom Casperson's ((R-Escanaba), Tom Casperson) fast-track effort to cripple Michigan's wetland protection law, first enacted in 1974, by eliminating about
half of the state's wetlands from their legal protection, and making other detrimental changes to land/water regulations, and to pursue this during the Legislature's lame duck session.
Wetlands are not only the most threatened habitats according to the recent WWF report with wildlife populations declining by 80% since 1970 (https://wwf.panda.org/…/all_publ…/living_planet_report_2018/) - but they also sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gases (https://phys.org/…/2017-02-wetlands-vital-role-carbon-stora…) - and provide important ecosystem services like freshwater storage and cleaning, and flood remediation (http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/water/intro/value/). Wetlands are vital to our survival and need the protections that Senator Casperson intends to strip away – obviously without understanding the consequences. I hope you will vote against this assault and try to inform your colleagues about the facts. I will follow and publicly share your engagement in this matter with my colleagues and friends.

Please also consider the chapter on the Midwest from the recently published Fourth National Climate Assessment:

"Restoration of natural systems, increases in the use of green infrastructure, and targeted conservation efforts, especially of wetland systems, can help protect people and nature from climate change impacts.”

https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/…/NCA4_Ch21_Midwest_ExecSu…

Sincerely, Tom
------------------------------
Thomas Wassmer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
Siena Heights University