Tannery Sludge At Michigan Landfill Tied To Water Pollution

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - State records and a former truck driver say a Superfund landfill suspected of chemically polluting a Michigan water system accepted toxic sludge from a company that used the same chemical compounds.

Sand Lake resident Earl Tefft tells MLive that he regularly drove sludge waste from the Wolverine World Wide leather tannery to the State Disposal Landfill in the mid-1960s.

Kent County records also show the company dumped sludge at the landfill. The company says it doesn't believe it disposed material at the site.

Wolverine made the Hush Puppies shoe brand using Scotchgard, a stain-and-water repellant that relies on perfluorinated chemicals as its chemical backbone.

The same compounds were found in Plainfield Township water in 2013, and traced to a well field north of the landfill.

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