A recent meeting was held to educate the public about historical contamination at a site in Pinckney and new testing that’s underway.

There is a historical groundwater contamination plume related to ACO Products on Hamburg Street, formerly Pittsfield Products. TCE, trichloroethylene, has been detected in soil gas wells in certain locations between ACO and North Mill Street. A meeting was held last Wednesday at the Pinckney Village offices and featured various representatives from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A history of the site and contamination was provided.

There was widespread contamination of household wells in the 1990’s, and the Village moved to a municipal water system. A consent judgment against ACO resulted and work was done to clean up the site. More recently, monitoring wells have detected TCE levels that exceed standards and the DEQ has been in contact with 19 homeowners in areas of “vapor pins” to test indoor air quality, which is not cause for immediate alarm but additional testing is needed.

Livingston County Director of Environmental Health Matt Bolang tells WHMI samples were collected Thursday from soil gas wells in the area. He noted they are located outside of homes to evaluate for the potential for the contaminated groundwater to release vapor. Should any elevated results come back, mitigation units would be installed inside homes, until a permanent system is installed. Costs are covered by the MDEQ. It will likely be a few weeks before results from recent testing are known. (JM)