[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: Pump and treat at former Wurtsmith Air Force Base (MI)

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Air Force welcomes public in a water cleanup tour for PFAS
	
by Ryan Herzog 
Iosco County News-Herald (MI)
November 1, 2022
 
	
OSCODA – Tucked in around the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, a mass water purification operation is taking place. And if you know where to look, one can spot the buildings that, house wells and tanks sucking up water to purifying the ground of Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA). These are among a family of chemicals known as Per Flouryl Alkyl substances (PFAS).

Recent upgrades mean the pump and treatment system pulls water from the ground at a constant rate of 1,400 gallons per minute, which equals to about 2,000,000 gallons per day. It has been in place since 2017, but has received new expansions to the tank and pumping system. It was reported as an $11 million project that nearly doubles the systems’ treatment capacity.

…

While the facilities on base do their job of taking away PFAS, the main issue is there is not enough to completely remove any contamination. Romer said their job is to only act as a “stopgap” in the system to prevent further contamination down stream. Any PFAS currently present in Van Etten or Clark’s Marsh is staying there for now. That’s cleanup for another day.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.iosconews.com/news/article_9a1e3486-5935-11ed-bdde-a752ba083b58.html

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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