PFAS Detected at Harbor Island in Grand Haven

The Michigan EGLE recently added Harbor Island in Grand Haven to their list of PFAS sites. The Grand Haven site is a natural marshland at the mouth of the Grand River as it flows into Lake Michigan. The site was first used as a landing point for logging operations. During the 1950s and 1960s the site was used as a dump. The coal-fired J.B. Sims Generating Station began operating in the early 1960s by the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power (GHBLP). Coal ash wastes were disposed of in unlined lagoons and the adjacent wetlands. In the early 1980s, clay lined lagoons were constructed for coal ash management.

According to EGLE, new federal regulations and state requirements required the site to complete various actions, including assessing the groundwater for potential impacts from site operations. GHBLP sampled for PFAS to determine appropriate environmental response actions and assess the island for environmental contaminants.

On February 25, 2022, the City of Grand Haven submitted to EGLE a report with the sampling results for 24 onsite groundwater samples.  Highlights from the report include:

• 18 out of 24 samples collected exceeded groundwater clean-up criteria for PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS.

• The highest exceedance of PFOA was 135 ppt collected at monitoring well PZ-13,

• The highest exceedance of PFOA was 283 collected at monitoring well MW-8,

• The highest exceedance of PFHxS was 311 ppt collected at monitoring well PZ-13. All other regulated PFAS were below criteria.

Merit Laboratories is a leading national PFAS environmental laboratory, analyzing drinking water, soil, wastewater, groundwater, and other sample matrices, including biosolids and sludge. Analytical methods performed by Merit for PFAS include drinking water by EPA 533, EPA 537.1, and EPA 537 rev. 1.1, biosolids by ASTM D7968-17 with Isotopic Dilution, and soil, wastewater, groundwater, and surface water by ASTM D7979-19 with Isotopic Dilution and ASTM D7968-17.