the water we’re delivering to 
our customers is safe,” Steglitz 
said. “We’ve been piloting new 
technology, a new granular 
activated carbon media in our 
filters, and we’ve been finding 
it to be successful at removing 
two of the PFAS compounds, 
PFOS and PFOA, that are part 
of the EPA’s health advisory. 
Because we’ve been piloting 
it and it’s been successful, we 
decided to put it in all of our 
filters.”

Laura Rubin, vice chair of 

the University of Michigan 
School for Environment and 
Sustainability advisory board 
and 
executive 
director 
of 

the Huron River Watershed 
Council, said it was difficult to 
accurately gauge the level of the 
threat because it is a new issue.

“We’re still in the process 

of 
identifying 
where 

the sources are and how 
pervasive they are throughout 
the watershed,” Rubin said. 
“Regularly, there are new issues 
that come up that we need to 
address. I would say a lot of our 
work is continual monitoring, 
continual work with our local 
government … we need better 
science and understanding on 
what current levels are okay for 
human health.”

Additionally, 
Rubin 

expressed 
frustration 
with 

the DEQ, which she believes 
is not doing enough to help 
the situation. Rubin said it is 
important for Michigan to be a 
leader in water safety because 
of its industrial past.

“Right now, the DEQ has 

been underfunded for a couple 
years and also been undermined 
by many of the current policies 
and practices, and especially 
at the EPA level there’s been a 
rollback of oversight and rules 
and regulations, so we would 

love to see more (regulations),” 
Rubin said. “Like many other 
states, it (Michigan) has a 
heavy 
manufacturing 
base, 

and because we have more 
manufacturing here, we have 
more chemicals and pollutants 
that have been released into 
the environment and into the 
groundwater and the rivers.”

Public 
Health 
student 

Alextia Armstrong, a member 
of the Environmental Health 
Student Association, interned 
at Ann Arbor’s treatment plant 
and is confident the discharged 
water is safe.

“In my opinion, students 

should worry about PFAS as 
much as they worry about every 
other emerging pollutant in any 
of our resources/environment,” 
Armstrong wrote in an email 
to The Daily. “Seeing how hard 
its (AAWTP’s) staff worked 
every day to provide a quality 
source of drinking water to 
many 
households 
in 
Ann 

Arbor/Townships, 
I 
believe 

that students shouldn’t be 
too worried about AAWTP’s 
ability to come up with and 
implement effective solutions 
to this problem. My only 
recommendation for students 
to stay safe is to become 
educated.”

While the situation in 

Ann Arbor might be under 
control, State Rep. Yousef 
Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, believes 
the problem is statewide and 
changes are needed. Earlier in 
September, Rabhi led a group 
of legislators who penned a 
letter to Gov. Rick Snyder (R) 
calling on the state to address 
high PFAS levels. 

“The 
first 
piece 
of 

legislation I introduced was 
a bill that, if it had passed, 
would have made companies 
that polluted pay to clean up 
the damages,” Rabhi said. “In 
Ann Arbor, the town council 
created a solution, but it was 
expensive, and that money 
still came from the taxpayers. 
Taxpayers shouldn’t have to 
pay to clean up a mess they 

didn’t make.”

Rabhi also stressed far-

reaching 
effects 
of 
clean 

drinking water are not always 
fully considered. He felt it was 
unjust many communities in 
Michigan do not have access 
to clean drinking water, while 
the state’s contract with Nestlé 
Waters North America pumps 
576,000 gallons of water per 
day from Michigan for $200 a 
year.

“In Michigan, we’ve had 

schools that have had to be 
closed 
down 
because 
they 

didn’t have clean water,” Rabhi 
said. “Clean water doesn’t just 
impact drinking, when this 
happens it impacts education 
and our public schools … and 
while all this is happening, 
Nestlé is allowed to take 
water, basically for free, from 
Michigan. I introduced a bill 
that would tax Nestlé just a 
small amount, a few cents per 
gallon, which would go towards 
funding our public schools. 
Republicans in Lansing didn’t 
pass it.”

Universally, 
most 
agree 

concrete standards for the 
acceptable amount of various 
chemicals within the water are 
needed. Steglitz believes there 
will be regulations sometime 
in the future, though preferably 
from a federal, not state, level.

“I 
think 
it’s 
clear 
that 

something needs to happen 
related to these chemicals,” 
Steglitz said. “Our preference 
would be the federal government 
and the EPA take the lead on this, 
because there are states that are 
already legislating maximum 
contaminant limits for these 
compounds, and they’re all doing 
it differently … The problem 
with all states taking their own 
initiative is it’s really difficult to 
message to customers: Why are 
these chemicals more dangerous 
in one state than another state? 
We would prefer that they (the 
federal government) use science 
to develop a standard that they 
can apply across the board, and 
then we can all follow that.”

2 — Thursday, October 18, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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get a grip people

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