Gelman Begins Groundwater Purge Operation

Gelman begins groundwater purge operation

By JANET COHEN
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

A test operation to remove polluted groundwater from underground reserves near Gelman Sciences Inc. is under way, a company spokesman said Monday.

Most of the groundwater is being pumped from a well north of the Gelman property directly into the company’s mile-deep underground injection well, said Philip Grashoff, the attorney representing the Scio Township scientific filter manufacturer in all matters related to groundwater contamination. Until last week, the deep well was used to dispose of the firm’s process wastewater.

The company is shunting a small amount of the groundwater through an experimental treatment system and then into the deep well, Grashoff said.

The purge operation began late last week, after Scio Township issued a permit allowing Gelman to discharge its process wastewater to the year-old sanitary sewer line linking the township to the Ann Arbor Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Gelman, located just west of the Ann Arbor city limit on Wagner Road just north of Liberty Road, has been Working with the Washtenaw County Health Department and the state departments of Natural Resources and Public Health to identify the source and spread of 1,4-dioxane, a carcinogenic solvent that began turning up in residential and commercial wells nearly two years ago.

The state Attorney General’s office is representing the DNR in attempts to negotiate a legally-binding cleanup plan and time schedule with Gelman.

The company used dioxane in its filtermaking process until May, 1986, and a geological consultant Gelman hired to study the pollution reported that the problem could have stemmed from the company’s former waste disposal practices.

The purge operation is designed to pull up the most contaminated groundwater first, and is operating smoothly on a “day-by-day” basis, Grashoff said.

“It’s going fine. There have been no problems,” he said.

Matt Frisch, the DNR geologist assigned to the Gelman case until earlier this month, said the company had not told him that the cleanup had started. The company last week denied DNR’s request to access company property to inspect the purge setup, he added.

The DNR’s new project manager, Roger Jones, also said he had not heard from Gelman that the purging had begun.

Bob Reichel, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Gelman case, could not be reached for comment this morning.

The DNR and Gelman have stated that the current purge operation represents a first step toward a more comprehensive cleanup. Still to be addressed are both immediate and long-term concerns, Frisch said. These include:

■ Identifying and controlling potential continuing sources of dioxane contamination on the Gelman property.

■ Collecting enough information to determine the depth and horizontal spread of pollution in several underground water-bearing soil layers, and the best way to clean it up.