MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Michigan’s PFAS Action Response Team has confirmed another site of PFAS pollution in West Michigan.

In a release published Monday, MPART reported that elevated levels of the forever chemicals have been found on the property of a chemical manufacturing facility on Whitehall Road. The facility was first built in the 1970s and operated for decades manufacturing pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

Chemical giant BASF purchased the facility in 2018 and sold it to Cytiva in 2022. According to MPART, the elevated levels of PFAS were found by Cytiva’s environmental sampling conducted prior to purchasing the property last year.

Samples were taken from 18 different groundwater wells. Of the 18, three tested above the state threshold for PFAS, including one that came back with 290 parts per trillion of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid. The state safety threshold for PFOS is 16 ppt.

An engineering team conducted more tests in May 2022 and found traces of PFAS compounds on the western and southern portions of the property, but all were below the state’s safety thresholds.

Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy is working with Cytiva and BASF on a plan for environmental liability. EGLE is still working to determine if any residential wells or recreational areas need to be tested.

The Cytiva facility, 1740 Whitehall Road, is approximately one-third of a mile west of Little Bear Creek. MPART says “historic and current groundwater monitoring data” indicate groundwater would flow from the facility toward the creek.