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White Pigeon Paper Company (White Pigeon Township, St. Joseph County)

White Pigeon Paper Company (White Pigeon Township, St. Joseph County)

Disclaimer: Web content may not be routinely updated on this page.

Please contact the Site Lead for the most up-to-date status of this site.

EGLE site lead

Ray Spaulding, SpauldingR1@Michigan.gov or (517) 290-2401.

Background

This site is located at 15781 River Street in White Pigeon Township. White Pigeon Mills, LLC is the current owner of the former White Pigeon Paper Company (WPPC) property, which was previously owned and operated by Artistic Carton Company and GPI Midwest, LLC. The former WPPC comprised approximately 54-acres of land with approximately 205,000-square feet of interconnected buildings. The former WPPC is located on the banks of the Pigeon River. Operations at the site included: pulping recycled paper stocks; forming pulp into paperboard; drying, coating, cutting and winding of paperboard; and packaging and shipping of finished product.

A site assessment was conducted in August 2019 prior to the sale of the property. Groundwater samples were collected from 19 shallow monitoring wells and analyzed for PFAS. PFAS was detected in all 19 monitoring wells. The highest on-site PFOA concentration detected in groundwater was 4,400 ppt, which exceeds EGLE's groundwater criterion of 8 ppt for PFOA. The highest on-site PFOS concentration detected in groundwater was 11,000 parts ppt, which exceeds EGLE's groundwater criterion of 16 ppt for PFOS. A groundwater permit is in place for this facility.

Shallow groundwater flows at the site to the southwest towards the Pigeon River. The Pigeon River discharges into the St. Joseph River, which eventually discharges into Lake Michigan.

Content posted January 2021.

White Pigeon Study Area Map

Site map

See an aerial view of the location of the site.

Expand the map

Drinking water

Bottled water will be supplied to affected residents until point of use filters can be installed.

Anticipated activities

October 2020, EGLE continues to sample residential drinking water wells in the study area.

Historical timeline

    • The Village of White Pigeon Municipal Wells were tested on September 26, 2018.  No PFAS compounds were detected in the municipal wells.
    • The Type II well at WPPC was tested July 2, 2019.  PFOA was detected at 3 ppt.
    • October 31, 2019, EGLE received a Notice of Offsite Migration from GPI Midwest, LLC for groundwater samples collected from the former WPPC property.  Sixteen of 19 monitoring wells tested exceeded the groundwater criteria of 70 ppt for PFOA + PFOS.
    • On February 12, 2020, EGLE sampled twelve drinking water wells for PFAS.
    • On February 27, 2020, EGLE received the results from the drinking water well samples.  Two of the residential wells tested exceed the EPA’s Lifetime Health Advisory of 70 ppt for PFOA + PFOS.
    • On March 2, 2020, EGLE sampled seven drinking water wells for PFAS.
    • On May 13-14, 2020, six residents sampled their own drinking water wells utilizing self-test kits from the EGLE laboratory.  Self-test kits were used to maintain social distancing protocols. 
    • On June 4, 2020, EGLE sampled two drinking water wells for PFAS.
    • On June 30, 2020, EGLE sampled four drinking water wells for PFAS.  Three additional wells were resampled to verify the results from the self-testing in May.
    • On July 23, 2020, EGLE sampled three drinking water wells for PFAS.
    • On March 9, 2020, EGLE conducted a groundwater inspection at WPPC that included sampling of process water, effluent and an evaluation of current operations.
    • On March 9, 2020, EGLE collected surface water samples upstream, downstream and at the WPPC location.

    Historical Sampling Chart: Data is reflective of criteria prior to 8/3/2020.  PFOS and PFOA Only

    This chart reflects data received prior to 8/3/2020.

    Type of Sample

    Date Sampled (or Range)

    Numberof Samples

    Number of Results Received

    		 Number of Non-Detects Number Between Non-detect and Standard* Number Greater Than or Equal to Standard

    Drinking Water

    		 February 2020 - March 2020 34 34 15 16 3
    Groundwater August 2019 19 19 0 3 16
    Cumulative 53 53 15 19 19

    *Residential well results are compared to the EPA Lifetime Health Advisory Level of 70 ppt.

    *Groundwater results are compared to EGLE Part 201 Criteria of 70 ppt PFOS+PFOA. 

    • On September 10, 2020, EGLE sampled nine drinking water wells in the expanded study area.  EGLE received the results on October 5, 2020.  One drinking water well sample exceeded the criterion for PFOA.
    • On September 10, 2020, EGLE sampled six drinking water wells around the former Eddy Paper landfill.  The landfill had historically received waste from the White Pigeon Paper Company.
    • On October 5, 2020 EGLE received the results from the September 2020 sampling event.  PFAS was not detected in any of the six samples.  The sample results for the landfill are not included in the sampling chart.

    Sampling Results Summary

    This table was updated to include all seven PFAS criteria effective December 21, 2020.

    Type of Sample

    Date Sampled (or Range)

    Numberof Sample Results Received

    Number of Samples above Criteria*
    Residential Wells February 2020 - September 2020 43 10

    Groundwater Monitoring Wells

    		 August 2019 19 18
    *Residential well and groundwater monitoring well results are compared to EGLE Part 201 criteria for 7 PFAS compounds:  PFOS (16 ppt), PFOA (8 ppt), PFNA (6 ppt), PFHxS (51 ppt), PFHxA (400,000 ppt), PFBS (420 ppt), and HFPO-DA (370 ppt).

    Sampling Notes

    • On August 3, 2020, new Part 201 Criteria went into effect.  Historical sampling data compared to Part 201 Criteria >70 is captured in the historical timeline below.
    • On January 19, 2021, EGLE discovered an error on the sampling chart below.  Samples that were previously indicated as # of non-detect should have been reflected as # above criteria.