One Hundred and TwenTy Five years OF ediTOrial FreedOm
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Ann Arbor, MI

Weekly Summer Edition
MichiganDaily.com

INDEX

NEWS ...................................
OPINION .............................. 
ARTS .....................................
CLASSIFIEDS.........................
SUDOKU................................
SPORTS................................

ARTS
Mayer Hawthorne 
returns to A2 

Artist performs 

homecoming concert at 

Power Center

 >> SEE PAGE 6

NEWS
Clinton adds to college 
affordability plan

New proposals echoe 

rhetoric of Bernie Sanders 

>> SEE PAGE 2

NEWS
Hospital opens new 
mental health center 
Facility will use cutting-
edge ECT therapy

>> SEE PAGE 3

OPINION
Hashtag 
Activism

Columnists discuss 

the perils and pitfalls 

of activism in the age of 

social media. 

>> SEE PAGE 5

SPORTS
Bottom named to 
coach team U.S.A

Swimming coach will be 

assistant coach in Rio 

>> SEE PAGE 12

inside

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Vol. CXXVI, No. 123| © 2016 The Michigan Daily 
michigandaily.com

County calls for EPA 
action on groundwater

‘U’ professor
wins grant 
of $500,000
for research 

LAURA MEYER/Daily

Ann Arbor Township Supervisor Michael Moran speaks at the Washtenaw County Board of Commisioners Wednesday 

City of Ann Arbor 

still undecided 
on superfund site 

position 

By BRIAN KUANG

Summer Daily News Editor

Citing 
more 
than 
three 

decades of disappointment with 
state environmental regulators, 
local authorities in Washtenaw 
County are increasing their 
support for the designation of a 
toxic plume of groundwater as 
an Environmental Protection 
Agency superfund site — a federal 
designation for areas in need 
of major clean up of harazdous 
substances. Such a move would 
prompt 
federal 
intervention 

that 
would 
largely 
bypass 

the Michigan Department of 
Environmental Quality, though 
other 
local 
officials 
have 

expressed 
reservations 
that 

doing so would merely hurt local 
property values and undermine 

the DEQ’s efforts.

Improper 
wastewater 

disposal by the Ann Arbor-
based company Gelman Sciences 
from 1966 to 1986 created a 
large plume of the carcinogenic 
toxin 1,4-dioxane underneath 
Ann Arbor, as well as Scio and 
Ann Arbor Townships. The 
gradually expanding plume has 
contaminated 
groundwater, 

forced the closure of more than 
100 private residential wells and 
is expected to reach the Huron 
River in the coming decades and 
potentially 
contaminate 
Ann 

Arbor’s water source at Barton 
Pond.

Wednesday 
evening, 
the 

Washtenaw 
County 
Board 

of 
Commissioners 
voted 

unanimously for a resolution 
supporting a petition to the 
EPA for superfund status. The 
Commission 
joins 
the 
Scio 

Township Board of Trustees, 
which voted in favor of a 
superfund petition June 20, and 
Ann Arbor Charter Township — 
a separate municipality from the 
city of Ann Arbor — that passed 

its own resolution of support in 
March.

Despite the outcome of the 

vote, the Ann Arbor City Council 
has not formally voted on a 
superfund petition, and Mayor 
Christopher Taylor — as well 
as several councilmembers — 
told the Daily in March that a 
premature petition could bring 
unintended harm to property 
values.

Wednesday, Taylor told the 

Daily the city is still unsure of 
whether or not it will back a 
petition for superfund status 
— though he didn’t rule out 
eventually supporting such a 
petition — and that he doesn’t 
expect City Council to debate 
the issue in the immediate 
future.

“The question of whether or 

not to seek superfund status 
is a complicated one,” Taylor 
said, pointing out that city 
staff members are continuing 
to work with other county 
stakeholders 
to 
understand 

the issue. “If we were to seek 

Dus’ work looks 
at obesity and the 

relationship between 
sugar and the brain

By ALEXA ST. JOHN

Daily Staff Reporter

The Rita Allen Foundation 

Scholars program — which invests 
in innovative biomedical research 
— 
recently 
awarded 
Monica 

Dus, 
University 
of 
Michigan 

progessor of of molecular, cellular 
and 
developmental 
biology 

$500,000 for her research on the 
relationship between sugar and 
the brain — an important factor in 
obseity research. 

The 
Foundation 
has 
been 

awarding candidates since 1976, 
requiring each to exhibit attention 
to innovation and global issues, 
focus on creating lasting solutions 
and a dedication to leadership. 
The grant has previously been 
awarded 
to 
professors 
and 

researchers nationwide, including 
those 
from 
Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology, Harvard 
University and the University of 
California system.

The grant will got toward Dus’ 

research on how the environment 
shapes one’s eating habits.

Dus’ grant began July 1, and she 

will receive a $100,000 payment 
annually over the next five years. 

Dus said the application process 

for the grant was extensive. Only 
a select number of universities 
can apply for the Rita Allen 
Foundation’s 
grants, 
which 

significantly reduces the pool 
of eligible candidates; however, 
Dus 
had 
to 
first 
participate 

FUNDINGS

See OBESITY, Page 8
See GROUNDWATER, Page 9

