Tribar Manufacturing Inc. in Wixom should be penalized for spilling a cancer-causing chemical into the Huron River waterway, Democratic candidates for the Livingston County Commission said on Monday.
“Clean water is life and is essential for Livingston County residents,” said Caitlyn Perry Dial of Brighton, in urging the commission to approve a resolution calling for tough action against Tribar.
“Tribar has to be held accountable,” Lori Cowan of Unadilla Township told the board.
Dial is running in county commission District 7 which includes the city of Brighton and a portion of Brighton Township. Cowan is running in county commission district 3 which includes the townships of Iosco, Unadilla, and Putnam plus southern Handy Township and southwest Hamburg Township.
Both urged the commission to adopt a resolution similar to one already approved unanimously by the Hamburg Township board of trustees.
It calls for:
• Tribar to be disconnected from the Wixom Wastewater Treatment Plant while the careless procedures that caused the release of hexavalent chromium are investigated.
• Investigation of criminal charges against Tribar by agencies including the Michigan attorney general, Michigan State Police, the Oakland County Prosecutor, Michigan Occupation Safety and Health Agency, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
• Tribar to be fined to the maximum extent possible to cover the costs of investigations, testing, and cleanup costs, including improvements and enhancements to the Huron River ecosystem.
• Requiring all significant industrial users to have an approved industrial pretreatment program.
• Requiring that wastewater treatment plants that empty into the Huron River system, including Wixom’s, not provide service to significant industrial users until they have an approved industrial pretreatment program.
On Aug. 1, Tribar Manufacturing LLD of Wixom had informed EGLE that it released several thousand gallons of a liquid containing 5 percent hexavalent chromium, a known cancer-causing substance.
The news resulted in EGLE issuing a No Contact order for much of the Huron River, disrupting recreational uses of the river and causing concern about the water supply for the city of Ann Arbor downstream. The no contact order has since been lifted.
The incident is the second time Tribar has been accused of being the source of pollutants in the Huron River. In recent years, Tribar was named as the primary source of PFAS/PFOS so-called “forever chemicals” that have polluted the Huron River all the way to where the river meets Lake Erie. An advisory against eating fish from the Huron River was issued due to that pollution.
