ALMENA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Officials say a contaminated groundwater plume from a landfill in southwestern Michigan that caused area residents to get new water sources has crossed into a neighboring county.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports that recent tests have detected contaminants in residential wells in Van Buren County’s Almena Township from the landfill in Kalamazoo County’s Oshtemo Township. Daniel DeWitt, environmental legal counsel to KLA Group, which is working to complete landfill cleanup, says the plume is shrinking as it moves.
The landfill opened in 1955 and was operated as a private dump, then as the Oshtemo Township landfill and finally as a landfill for Kalamazoo County. It was closed in 1979 after contaminants were found in nearby residential wells and it was designated a federal Superfund site in 1982.
