Council to discuss 1,4-dioxane lawsuit

OUT FRONT

A look ahead at this week’s important issues.

Council to discuss 1,4 dioxane lawsuit

The most important discussions at Tuesday's Ann Arbor City Council meeting may be behind closed doors.

City Council Member Chris Easthope, D-5th Ward, has called for a closed session to discuss the city’s legal position with the ongoing contamination of 1,4 dioxane. The meeting - moved back one day because Monday is President’s Day- begins at 7:30 pan. on the second floor of city hall in Council Chambers.

The city filed a lawsuit last year contesting Pall’s permit to dump more treated wastewater into a tributary of Honey Creek, which flows into the Huron River. The old permit allowed the company to pump 800 gallons per minute; the new one allows 1,300 gallons per minute. City officials were concerned that dioxane traces in the wastewater would become detectable at the city’s Huron River water intake.

Gelman Sciences stored waste water with dioxane in it in unlined lagoons and sprayed it over lawns at the company’s Wagner Road facility until the mid-1980s. It turned up in residential wells in 1985.

More wells are expected to be drilled in coming months, as both Pall and the city look for the leading edge of the contamination.