Adam's Plating (Lansing, Ingham County)

Adam’s Plating is a USEPA Superfund Site with the USEPA being the lead agency and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) being the support agency. Before 1964, a dry-cleaning business occupied the building. In 1964, electroplating operations began at the site and continued until the building was destroyed in a fire in 2010. In 2011, the USEPA demolished and removed debris from the building, removed hazardous substances stored on the property, and removed and replaced contaminated soil.

• In July 2016, the USEPA collected groundwater samples as part of a RI, which is ongoing for this Superfund site. As part of the RI, the USEPA evaluated the data collected, identified potential risks, and stated the actions that would be taken based on the risks identified.
• In November 2016, EGLE became aware of the PFAS-contaminated groundwater when the USEPA shared groundwater results.
• On November 21, 2017, EGLE received a draft RI from the USEPA for the site.
• On December 21, 2017, EGLE sent comments and concerns on the draft RI to the USEPA.
• In March 2018, at the suggestion of EGLE, the Lansing Board of Water and Light collected samples for PFAS given the detections in groundwater near the Adams Plating site. Samples were collected from the two water treatment plant taps and from the raw water headers coming into both of the treatment plants. All results reported were non-detect for PFAS, with a reporting limit of 2 ppt. There are no private wells in the area of the site that are using this groundwater as a drinking water source. While the Lansing Board of Water and Light does pump from the groundwater aquifer, they do not have any pumps in the direct vicinity of the site.
• On June 7, 2018, the USEPA sent a revised version of the draft RI to EGLE addressing their comments and concerns.
• On June 28, 2018, EGLE completed their review and provided a formal comment letter to the USEPA.
• On August 8, 2018, a meeting was held with the USEPA, Lansing Township, and EGLE to discuss this and the RACER Lansing Plants 2, 3, and 6 site. It was decided that quarterly meetings will be held going forward. The next quarterly meeting is being planned by the RACER project managers in EGLE.
• On August 23, 2018, EGLE participated in a conference call with the USEPA to discuss EGLE’s comments on the June 2018 RI and EGLE’s comment letter. One of EGLE’s comments was that the HHRA, a key part of the RI, was missing from the November 2017 submittal.
• On October 1, 2018, the USEPA submitted the HHRA to EGLE for review.
• On November 2, 2018, EGLE completed its review of the HHRA and submitted comments to the USEPA and requested a conference call to discuss these comments with the USEPA.EGLE is currently waiting for a response from the USEPA regarding this request. EGLE will continue this collaborative process with the USEPA to come to agreement on a final product.
• EGLE received responses from USEPA on the comments EGLE provided on November 2, 2018.

• On May 29, 2019, EGLE Superfund Management provided the issues with the USEPA’s comments from November 2, 2018 in a bulleted list to USEPA management; EGLE was informed that the site had been reassigned to a different Project Manager who is currently familiarizing herself with the investigation.
• On July 30, 2019, a face to face meeting was held between EGLE and the USEPA. During this meeting, discussions were had regarding the potential for the storm sewer to be acting as a pathway for shallow, contaminated groundwater to be making its way to the Grand River. The Remedial Project Manager agreed that this was something that needs to be taken into consideration prior to finalizing the Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) and Remedial Investigation. Steps are being taken to begin this process.
• On December 27, 2019, EGLE received a final draft of RIfor the site and are currently reviewing the document.  EGLE provided EPA with a formal comment letter on the RI on March 9, 2020.
• EGLE prepared a sampling plan to collect samples from the storm sewers in the area of the site.  The site Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) is also being updated to include the collection of groundwater and storm water samples for PFAS.  This QAPP was submitted to EPA for review and approval on December 4, 2019. On EGLE received comments from EPA, made the appropriate changes and resubmitted the document to EPA for signature on March 11, 2020.

• On March 12, 2020, EGLE and EPA collected samples from 3 storm water manholes.  The data from these samples was received on March 27th and has been shared with EPA to include in their Remedial Investigation (RI).  Discussions are currently taking place with EGLE staff as to how to proceed based off of the Groundwater/Surface Water Interface exceedances that were detected.  The highest result was 544 ppt PFOS+PFOA.  This sample location could be impacted by another property and EGLE staff are working to determine the source.

Sampling: PFOS and PFOA Only

*Groundwater results are compared to EGLE Part 201 Criteria of 70 ppt PFOS+PFOA.
*Surface water samples are compared to Rule 57 non-drinking water values of 12 ppt for PFOS and 12,000 ppt for PFOA. 

Sampling Notes

• Other PFAS analytes were detected in samples. There are no federal or state standards for these analytes.