Annual Meeting PFAS Presentation

A highlight of the 2024 GLQO Annual Meeting was a presentation by Erica Bays, from Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy on the work they are doing to monitor PFAS levels around Gull Lake. She provided a number of very detailed maps and charts that demonstrated where PFAS levels are above detection limits in and around the area to the south and east of Gull Lake; most of this associated with contamination from the plastics plant.  The source of PFAS contamination in the Idlewild neighborhood is not clear but given the data from the test wells is not likely to be from plastics plant.  Confusion regarding the high PFAS levels that have been detected in smelt, in Gull Lake and other lakes, was discussed. This may be the result of an interaction between the process for testing and bile in smelt; EGLE is developing new protocols for this test that will be implemented in 2024 or 2025 and hopefully will resolve this anomaly.

Erica’s slides (PDF) (8MB)