Red Cedar Groundwater

From Great Lakes Wiki

By Thomas Morgan

The land drained by the Red Cedar River contains three dozen sites the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality considers to be contaminated. It also contains another 207 leaking underground storage tanks, according to state records.

Together these sources of contaminants pose a threat to groundwater within the river's 472-square mile watershed.

And groundwater is an important drinking water resource, especially in Ingham County where a 2004 report found that Ingham County withdraws more groundwater for public use than any other county in Michigan.

According to the DEQ, there are 36 “Part 201” sites — certifiably contaminated areas — that lie within the Red Cedar watershed, all within Ingham and Livingston counties.

The DEQ scores each site based on its environmental risk. The highest score possible is 48. The sites within the Red Cedar range from 18 for agricultural contaminants in Lake Lansing to a high of 41 at a chemical distributor in Mason. Surface pollution reaches groundwater by seeping through rock and soil, according to a report by the Greater Lansing Regional Committee for Stormwater Management.

When a quart of motor oil is poured onto exposed earth, the contents seep through layers of soil and rock before reaching the top level of groundwater, known as the water table. From there, it travels along the flow of the groundwater, said Joseph Lovato, chief of the Michigan DEQ's Groundwater Mapping and Investigation Unit.

Contents 1 Groundwater threats 2 The unlucky seven 3 Consider health threats: 4 Unresolved LUST 5 Related Links

Groundwater threats

Lovato said groundwater contamination becomes a public health issue when three factors are present:

• An industry that uses solvents and chemicals

• Geological conditions that allow such toxic substances to move

• Public use of the groundwater

Groundwater contamination at Americhem Corp., a Mason-based oil and chemical wholesaler, fits all three criteria, and it’s an example of both pollution sources.

Solvents and chemicals are present at the site of the chemical dealer. Those pollutants don't have very far to travel before reaching the groundwater. The surface at the Americhem site is not very thick, so the groundwater rapidly becomes contaminated with “whatever spilled on the ground,” said Cheryl Stanfield, chief geologist for the Remediation and Redevelopment Division of the Michigan DEQ.

Lovato’s third condition is also present: Although the Americhem site is not directly threatening anyone’s drinking water, Ingham County withdraws more groundwater for public use than any other Michigan county. A 2004 DEQ report says water facilities in the county withdraw 39.7 million gallons of public water every day.

The unlucky seven

Americhem, formerly the site of a gas station, is host to seven different contaminants classified as known health risks by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The first two, perchloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, when combined are known as PERC, according to the institute.

PERC poses major health risks, both by air and by water. Short-term exposure to PERC can cause dizziness, headaches and fatigue, while long-term contact can cause liver and kidney damage, according to the institute.

The third pollutant found at the site is a combination of xylenes, which according to the Environmental Protection Agency, are used to produce PERC. Xylenes, according to the EPA, can at high exposure levels cause dizziness, respiratory and neurological damage.

Added to that list of health hazards is benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and vinyl chloride.

Consider health threats:

• Benzene, found in everything from gasoline to cigarettes, has been classified by the EPA as a “Group A” carcinogen, meaning it clearly causes cancer. Benzene is colorless, highly flammable and dissolves easily in water.

• Ethylbenzene, which the EPA says is used to make plastics. The chemical, which at acute levels can cause damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system, binds itself easily to groundwater.

• Toluene, an organic liquid used to make benzene, carries many of the similar health risks of ethylbenzene. Exposure for a relatively short period of time can cause dizziness, fatigue and confusion, according to the EPA.

• Vinyl chloride, a gas used in construction materials, is classified by the EPA as a cancer-causing contaminant. Like ethylbenzene, it easily leaches into groundwater.

Those chemicals have penetrated the thin layer of surface soil at the Americhem site, resulting in a chemical plume within the groundwater, Stanfield said. However, she added that the plume poses no immediate hazard to people in or around Mason.

“It's not an immediate threat to anyone,” she said. “If you lived on top of it, it would be a problem.”

Stanfield said the DEQ has recently completed investigating the site, and will be releasing its findings within the coming months.

“We just want to make sure that it's contained,” she said.

Bruce Whetter, president of Americhem Corp., did not return phone calls seeking comment.

A LUST for action The environmental problems at the Americhem location don't end there.

According to the DEQ, the Americhem site contains two leaking underground storage tanks, releasing an indeterminate substance into the groundwater.

The government classifies locations where underground storage tanks have ruptured as LUST sites ― Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.

The storage tanks at Americhem were reported to be leaking on Sept. 10, 1997, and Nov. 30, 1998, according to DEQ files.

More than eight years since the first tank began leaking, the spills have yet to be contained, according to DEQ records.

Lovato said it takes one to two years to remove the immediate source of the leak. Once that process is completed, it could take anywhere from 10 to 100 years to remove all of the contaminants, he said.

The two LUST reports at Americhem are just two of 207 LUST sites within the Red Cedar watershed and 9,926 statewide. Gas stations with ruptured gasoline and diesel tanks dominate the list.

“Underground storage tanks leak – it's probably the rule more than the exception,” Lovato said.

Unresolved LUST

Many of the statewide LUST sites have been unresolved since the mid-1980s, when Congress created the first substantial laws dealing with LUST cleanups.

Lovato said departmental cutbacks have thinned out DEQ staff, making it difficult to address many LUST sites in a timely fashion. “The less money that's available for us, the less often we're able to go out and check on them,” he said.

Even for the least-contaminated LUST sites, it cost between $60,000 and $300,000 to clean up, according to DEQ budget proposals.

In an effort to address LUST issues, the state legislature in 1994 passed a bill creating the Refined Petroleum Fund, which draws its money from gasoline taxes imposed at the pump. The fund currently receives 0.875 cents per gallon, which totals about $60 million per year, DEQ funding specialist Sharon Goble told the Associated Press.

To better address LUST sites, the Refined Petroleum Fund's advisory council recently proposed more than doubling that figure to 2 cents a gallon, which is projected to raise the fund's revenue to $137 million a year, the AP reported.

The Americhem site isn't unique, but rather just one of thousands of contaminated sites within the state, each resting in a watershed.

Despite its moniker of “The Great Lakes State,” 45 percent of Michigan residents use groundwater as their primary source of water, according to the United States Geological Survey. When people think of freshwater, they likely conjure images of lakes, streams and rivers.

But what lies beneath the surface should be of great concern to not only residents who live within the Red Cedar watershed, but to the millions of Michiganders who unknowingly rely on groundwater every day.

Related Links

Red Cedar River (Michigan)
Red Cedar Storm
Red Cedar Floods
Red Cedar Wetlands
Red_Cedar_Sewers
Red Cedar Farm
Red Cedar Pharmaceuticals