Years after flags, Wolverine Worldwide plant caught in PFAS probe

By Garret Ellison | MLive | March 30, 2022

Read the full article by  Garret Ellison (MLive)

"Investigators have finally made their way to a Wolverine Worldwide facility where the company manufactured shoe parts near the Rogue River, five years after the initial discovery of widespread toxic ‘forever chemical’ pollution in the northern Kent County suburbs.

The state of Michigan directed Wolverine this month to begin testing around its old sole plant at 485 Wolverine Street in Rockford, after high PFAS levels were found in the groundwater under the property and in marshy areas along the river.

The 12 acres of unused factory and backwater land are owned by Wolverine. Local citizens flagged the properties as likely to be contaminated in a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) back in 2011, but they were nonetheless excluded from the large pollution investigation that spread across Kent County starting in 2017."

This content provided by the PFAS Project.

Topics:

• ChemicalsPFAS
• ChemicalsPFOS
• ProductsShoes
• ProductsTextiles
• Environment
• Wildlife
• Affected community
• Health
• Measurement Techniques
• Monitoring Data
• PFAS Uses