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Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) released the following statement regarding the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s long-overdue proposal to strengthen the state’s cleanup standards for 1,4-dioxane. Last month, Dingell sent a letter to MDEQ Director Keith Creagh urging the state to finalize stricter standards to help accelerate cleanup of a dioxane plume that has been spreading through the groundwater in Ann Arbor for decades after an unfortunate business practice by Gelman Sciences, now owned by Pall Life Sciences, allowed the chemical into the ground. 

Michigan is among the last states in the country to update its dioxane standard after the Environmental Protection Agency classified the chemical as “likely to be carcinogenic in humans by all routes of exposure” and has recommended lower standards for health-based drinking water guidance values.

“The City of Ann Arbor has been waiting for years for MDEQ to finalize stricter dioxane cleanup standards that reflect the latest science and guidelines from the EPA, and I am glad the standard is now out. This proposal will give Ann Arbor, and MDEQ, another important tool for holding Pall Life Sciences accountable for the contamination they caused many years ago and will give citizens greater confidence that every effort is being made to protect public health. The community deserves to know that their drinking water is safe, and I encourage residents to take full advantage of the public comment period as MDEQ finalizes the proposed rule. The state must also continue to work with the Ann Arbor Mayor, City Council, and other stakeholders in the region to assure them that the plume is being adequately monitored and that they are pursuing all available options to accelerate cleanup of the contamination. I will continue to press EPA to ensure this is being monitored at all levels.”