Officials are expanding an investigation into toxic chemicals in drinking water from private wells in part of southwestern Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality tested 25 residential wells for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in Kalamazoo County's Richland Township. DEQ spokesman Scott Dean tells the Kalamazoo Gazette the agency will collect about 300 residential well samples in an expanded area.
Contamination from the area's former Production Plated Plastics property was well-known, but there could be other environmental threats.
Earlier this week in Kent County, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to test the blood of hundreds of people who have been exposed to the chemicals in Rockford and Belmont, where shoemaker Wolverine World Wide dumped tannery waste into unlined landfills and gravel pits.
