Concerns over potential future groundwater contamination at the Oxford Woods well field were addressed last week when representatives from the Michigan Department of Environment Quality (MDEQ) spoke to the Oxford Township Board.
Based on the information the department has collected, “it’s very unlikely” that plumes of groundwater contamination – “mostly” comprised of the toxic solvent and carcinogen “trichloroethylene” (TCE) left over from former businesses – in the eastern portion of the township will come in contact with the Oxford Woods well field, according to Kevin Lund, geologist with the MDEQ.
The township board July 9 authorized spending up to $61,000 on design work for the municipality’s first water treatment plant to be located at the Oxford Woods site.
However, some officials expressed concerns about placing a treatment facility there, if its in the path of a migrating plume of contamination.
Lund outlined several reasons as to why he doesn’t “believe there’s going to be any problem” with the plumes “hitting” Oxford Woods.
He said the contamination is “too far away” from the well field, which is located to the west.
Because “water flows downhill” and the contamination is flowing southward, in order for it to hit Oxford Woods, Lund said it would have to make a “horseshoe bend,” which would violate the law of gravity.
Lund noted that as contamination flows further away from its source, it gets “diluted” through “natural chemical breakdown.” Bugs in the water break down the chlorine bonds in TCE, he said.
After traveling 1,000 feet, the contamination decreases to 1 part per billion, Lund explained.
In addition to distance and physics, a series of lakes separating the Oxford Woods site from the plumes act as a natural “buffer” against the contamination, preventing the two from coming into contact, Lund told officials.
Lund pointed out that a “majority” of groundwater from which the Oxford Woods wells are drawing comes from the west, which was formerly “all farmland,” not from the contaminated eastern areas, which contained commercial and industrial facilities.
The MDEQ representatives noted that the department is tracking the flow of Oxford’s plumes of contamination. “We keep a pretty good eye on you guys,” Lund told officials.
The MDEQ is monitoring 50 homes in the plumes’ area on an annual basis and there’s been “no new data” that’s “raised any concerns,” Lund said.