Watson Township Supervisor Kevin Travis Thursday night announced state officials found no contamination in 12 residential water wells near the old dump site near the U.S.-131 Motor Sports Park.

This good news followed the bad news two months ago that perfluorooctanoic acid, a perfluorinated carboxylic acid, or PFAs, has been discovered in two of five wells and the old Watson-Martin landfill near the corner of 115^th Avenue and 12^th Street.

Travis added that a nearby lake had “very low concentrations” of the chemical that could have come just as easily from a septic system, according to officials from EGLE (Environment, Great Lakes & Energy).

Trustee Chuck Andrysiak, who also serves on the Planning Commission, quipped, “I can start drinking my water again.”

The 20-acre dump site, which was opened in 1971 and shuttered sometime in the mid-1980s, had never been tested for water contaminants until this year.

Wikipedia indicates the substance is “produced and used worldwide as an industrial surfactant in chemical processes and as a material feedstock, and is a health concern and subject to regulatory action and voluntary industrial phase-outs.”

Problems with PFAS have been reported in more than 400 locations in Michigan, Travis said. Closer to home, they’re been reported in Otsego, Parchment and Decatur.

Travis said EGLE officials still would like to have a groundwater flow study done.

In other business at their Thursday evening meeting, Watson officials:

• Learned from Allegan County Commissioner Gale Dugan that there is consideration in Lansing for extending county commissioners’ terms from to four years.

“My view is every two years you are more responsible to your constituents,” Dugan said, but it is state legislators who will decide the issue.

• Decided against an offer from United Bank to switch, with a better loan rate for one year.
• Appointed Tim McKinnon to replace the resigned Amy Germain on the Hopkins Township Library Board.
• Received a clean audit report from Theresa Steffes of the accounting firm of Walker, Fluke & Sheldon.
• Awarded the bid of Scott Langlois for $2,600 for the winter season for snowplowing the township hall parking lot.
• Heard a presentation about economic development from Greg King of Lakeshore Advantage, much the same speech he gave to the Wayland City Council Monday night.