Thursday, June 30, 2016

LWV hosts public forum on Water Street debt reduction millage tonight

Gentle readers, the most important election of 2016 is just weeks away. Not only will the August Primary determine the composition of the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti City Councils, but citizens of Ypsilanti will also get a chance to vote on the Water Street debt reduction millage. If you'd like to know more about the millage proposal, the League of Women Voters is hosting a public forum tonight at the EMU Student Center, Room 320 from 5:30 - 7:00. Mark Maynard has a good article with background on the issue of the Water Street debt.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Annual NPNA Yard Sale tomorrow

Gentle readers, tomorrow is the annual Normal Park Neighborhood Association multi-house yard sale. 98 houses will be having yard sales, so swing by Ypsilanti and see what's for sale.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Issues & Ale discusses 1,4 Dioxane Contamination tonight at Bill's Beer Garden


UPDATE: due to weather, this event has been moved to tomorrow, June 2nd. 

Michigan Radio's Issues and Ale will be at Bill's Beer Garden tonight to discuss a topic very near and dear to my heart: the contamination of Ann Arbor's groundwater with the carcinogen 1,4 dioxane by Gelman Sciences. By way of background, in the 1960s Gelman Sciences' plant in Scio Township began pumping wastewater into a holding lagoon behind their facility on Wagner Road. This was legal at the time, but the lagoons did not hold. By the mid 1980s groundwater tests showed elevated levels of 1,4 dioxane. In the 1990s two things happened: Gelman Sciences was sold to Pall Corporation and a consent judgement between the city, Michigan DEQ and Pall Corporation set up terms of a clean up. You can read more about this history of Gelman Scientific groundwater contamination on the Ann Arbor Chronicle.

Recently, the DEQ has proposed reducing the acceptable level of 1,4 dioxane in drinking water from 85 parts per billion (ppb) to 7.2 ppb. This brings us to tonight. Lester Graham is hosting a panel discussion at Bill's Beer Garden from 6:30 to 8:00 discussing our lovely dioxane plume and possibilities for remediating this problem. You wont want to miss it.