Wayland City Manager Josh Eggleston told the Wayland City Council Monday evening there is no reason for concern about a recent report about PFAs discovered at a West Elm Street site.
Eggleston insisted the chemical has not been found in the water at any residence business or industry in the community.
“At this point there seems to be no concern regarding the city or its water supply,” the city manager reported. “This was a clean-up site from 2018/2019. Any subsequent cleanups completed here will be under the supervision of EGLE (the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Leakes and Energy) and they will notify the city if and when there are concerns.”
The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) has investigated elevated levels of PFAS at Wayland Recycling Inc. at 763 West Elm St. MPART said in a press release that groundwater tests from 2021 found levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) at 40 parts per trillion, higher than the state safety standard, 16 ppt. Perfluorohexane sulfonate was shown to have at 80 ppt, above the 51 ppt standard.
Wayland Recycling, Inc., which occupies about one acre of land, previously was owned by Wayland Development, Inc., and operated as a waste oil treatment and used oil filter recycling facility. Waste oil was placed into several underground and above ground storage tanks.
In other business at the meeting Monday, the City Council:
- Adopted the fire code ordinance that enables a trained firefighter to perform inspections.
- Approved the appointment of Heather Mitchell as city assessor.
- Approved the Wayland Hotel’s request for a special event liquor license to sell alcohol outdoors at the Summerfest celebration.
- Approved the changed route this year for the Memorial Day parade, which will start May 29 at the Michigan State Police post on North Main Street, but will end at the City Park instead of the customary finish at the VFW post on South Main.
- Noted a collapsed water line was located Monday by city crews, but it was repaired quickly and service was restored.