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Cadillac residents had been on edge for months about the discovery of toxic “forever chemicals” in dozens of private drinking water wells, when state officials recently delivered some unexpected news.

The most logical culprit, many had believed, was a local industrial park with a troubled history. After all, metal platers and automotive manufacturers had already polluted the park with volatile organic compounds and hexavalent chromium. Those same industries have been linked to PFAS contamination in other Michigan communities. And Cadillac’s first PFAS-positive well test had come from a home within the industrial park. 

But a state analysis of water from 70 neighboring wells told another story: Some residents, schools and businesses may have unwittingly tainted their own drinking water, through years of flushing common household products down the drain and into septic systems that allowed tainted sewage to quietly infiltrate the aquifer.

“We're really guessing at the sources at this point,” said Abigail Hendershott, executive director of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. 

“But when you get this many of them, especially since there's no real industrial sources (within the immediate vicinity) … a lot of these are going to be small, diffuse sources such as septic fields.”

Cadillac’s experience serves as a warning to millions of Michiganders who drink from unmonitored, loosely regulated private wells and flush their household sewage into onsite septic systems: PFAS is pervasive in everyday products, from shaving cream and laundry detergent to floor wax and wrinkle-free clothes. And septic systems are not designed to break them down.

Addressing highly localized pollution caused by those products is “the next stage” in a nationwide contamination response that so far has focused mainly on major polluters like factories and military bases, said Cheryl Murphy, director of the Michigan State University Center for PFAS Research. 

“It's a tricky place to be, when we're all contributing to it,” Murphy said. “In order to deal with this, we have to emphasize that yes, it's in your households, but there are steps that you can take to minimize your exposure.”

Namely, getting well water tested, installing filters if needed, and thinking twice about the chemicals we use in our homes.

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