02/11/2011 - MDNRE Approves Pall/Gelman Plan to Reduce 1,4-Dioxane Groundwater Cleanup

After more than a year of secret negotiations, MDNRE approves Pall/Gelman plan to reduce 1,4-dioxane groundwater cleanup and let more spread... even as recent sampling results raise more questions about direction of its spread... and in spite of the August 2010 US DEQ ruling that dioxane standards should be tightened, which would reduce the current dioxane cleanup standard from 85 ppb to 3-4 ppb (or back to about the same standard that had been in effect until 1995) and far lower than the 2800 ppb at which dioxane is now allowed to spread through Ann Arbor. A copy of the DNRE announcement is here. Details of changes to the Consent Judgment will be made public after they are entered in court. A public information meeting to present the changes will be scheduled for March (after the decision will already have been locked into the Consent Judgment.)