Golf Course, Gravel Company Must Address PFAS Contamination in Belmont

BELMONT, MI — A Kent County golf course owner and a former gravel company have agreed to a settlement requiring them to investigate PFAS contamination and protect nearby residents whose drinking water has been impacted.

Under an Administrative Order on Consent announced Friday, Boulder Creek Development Corp. and Northeast Gravel Company must address PFAS contamination at their Belmont property, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

The agreement requires the companies to:

  • Investigate the extent of PFAS contamination at the property
  • Conduct necessary response activities
  • Take actions to protect residents whose drinking water has been impacted

Michigan residents shouldn't have to worry about companies leaking forever chemicals in their backyards. This agreement ensures that those responsible for PFAS contamination are held accountable for cleanup efforts to protect the health and safety of the Belmont community, said Attorney General Nessel.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy remains committed to addressing PFAS contamination and safeguarding Michigan's communities. This agreement is an important step toward ensuring residents have the clean, safe water they deserve, said EGLE Director Phil Roos.

The Belmont site was once a gravel pit that also operated as a landfill accepting Wolverine Worldwide tannery sludge waste between 1970 and 1979. Decades ago, Northeast Gravel Company ran a landfill at the site where Wolverine tannery waste was dumped, along with plating waste and general garbage.

Boulder Creek Development Corporation acquired the property in 1996 and redeveloped it into a golf course.

The agreement comes after EGLE officials discovered that a cell at the landfill was leaking PFAS in 2018. The leak was contaminating groundwater used for drinking water by area residents and impacting the Grand River.

The golf course owner will reimburse EGLE for $100,000 in costs that EGLE incurred to conduct required investigation and response activities.

State officials say toxic PFAS chemicals from the site have contaminated groundwater and private wells, with the pollution migrating toward the Grand River.

State environmental regulators collected samples from the site in 2021 that were found to contain extremely high levels of PFOS and PFOA, two of the most widely used PFAS compounds by industry.

Officials found tannery waste as concentrated as 42 million parts per trillion and plating waste at more than 1 million ppt.

Michigan replaced its 70 ppt health screening limits for PFAS in drinking water in 2019 with some of the nation's toughest standards. Michigan set thresholds for PFOA at 9 ppt and PFOS at 8 ppt, which means the Belmont site far exceeds state safety standards.

The company does not admit liability as part of the agreement, which also does not block other entities from being held responsible for the pollution.

EGLE officials can now enforce a cleanup schedule and deadlines for providing safe water for nearby properties. The settlement also outlines a path toward capping the pollution rather than excavating the affected soil.

Officials connected 18 homes that are adjacent to the golf course near 7 Mile Road to municipal water in 2021.

This agreement addresses contamination at the Belmont property. The deal comes six years after the former Northeast Gravel dump site was excluded from a 2020 consent decree with Wolverine that governed cleanup for the shoemaker's widespread PFAS pollution across northern Kent County.

Wolverine has quarreled with EGLE this year in federal court over the scope of its cleanup efforts in Plainfield Township. The company remains embroiled in a separate but related PFAS groundwater investigation near its headquarters as well as a federal Superfund evaluation and state probe into PFAS contamination around a former shoe sole plant in Rockford.