ANN ARBOR, MI -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is proposing to spend more money next fiscal year to better monitor, track and understand the Gelman dioxane plume spreading through the Ann Arbor area.

The DEQ is asking state lawmakers to approve an allocation of $700,000 worth of Clean Michigan Initiative funds in fiscal year 2017, which starts this October, for efforts related to addressing the toxic plume on the city's west side.

Ann Arbor's dioxane plume has been identified by the DEQ as one of 13 contaminated sites across the state to receive a funding boost using Clean Michigan Initiative bonds totaling about $16 million in the next fiscal year.

Bob Wagner, the DEQ's Remediation and Redevelopment Division chief, made brief reference to the funding request at a meeting with local officials last week.

He offered more details this week and confirmed the amount proposed to be earmarked for the Gelman plume, saying the DEQ would be able to use the money for environmental testing, monitoring groundwater, installing new monitoring wells, assembling a conceptual site model, performing contaminant tracking, fate and transport modeling, and providing data sharing services.

It also could be used for providing alternate water to residents and businesses whose water sources might become contaminated by the plume, which continues to spread in multiple directions in Ann Arbor and Scio Township.

"We will provide safe drinking water to any resident or business that has well water containing 1,4-dioxane exceeding the current criteria of 85 parts per billion, as well as the new proposed criteria that we'll soon be releasing," Wagner said last week.

Wagner confirmed the new state cleanup standards will lower the permissible level of dioxane in groundwater to somewhere under 10 ppb.

The funding request comes as local officials and residents have been calling on the DEQ to do more to help address the dioxane plume that has been slowly expanding from the former Gelman Sciences site on Wagner Road for decades.

The biggest fear is that the plume, if it goes north to the Huron River, might eventually reach Barton Pond, the city's primary drinking water source.

Though some pump-and-treat remediation efforts remain ongoing to reduce the amount of dioxane in the groundwater, the pollution is still spreading, and the DEQ, which is limited by state law and court orders, can't require Pall Corp., the company responsible for the toxic mess, to do a full-scale cleanup.

Pall Corp. acquired Gelman in 1997 and last year was acquired by Danaher Corp., a multibillion-dollar corporation some believe can afford to do more cleanup to stop the plume from spreading toward area drinking water sources.

Once the state revises the cleanup standards, the DEQ plans to go back to court to get the consent judgment for the cleanup revised.

"My hope is still that the state and the city and Pall can work together to get the additional monitoring wells we think need to be installed to be more secure in our beliefs and know it's not going to Barton," said Matt Naud, the city of Ann Arbor's environmental coordinator, who called the $700,000 request good news.

"Hopefully we'll get more and more attention to what's going on in the environment, but that's good news, especially, I think, for the county areas where there is a risk that some of these folks on wells may get hits," he said. "Having money earmarked and ready to go is important, so I think it's promising."

Wagner said the DEQ's funding request is included in Gov. Rick Snyder's overall budget request to the Legislature and awaits approval from state lawmakers.

Michigan voters in November 1998 approved $675 million worth of Clean Michigan Initiative bonds for environmental, natural resources and health protection programs that would clean up and redevelop contaminated sites, protect and improve water quality, prevent pollution, abate lead contamination, reclaim and revitalize community waterfronts, enhance recreational opportunities, and clean up contaminated sediments in lakes, rivers and streams.

As of September 2013, the state had issued nearly $490 million or 86 percent of CMI bonds for environmental protection programs administered by the DEQ.

The DEQ's recent report to the House Appropriations Subcommittee makes note of roughly 500 contaminated sites where the DEQ indicates it worked to protect public health in 2015. The 13 projects proposed to be funded by CMI bonds in 2017 are beyond the 500-plus planned projects funded from ongoing appropriations.

The DEQ's report shows an overall budget of $513.5 million, including $98.2 million for remediation and redevelopment.

While there's no doubt the Gelman plume is spreading, Wagner acknowledged at last week's meeting with local officials in Ann Arbor, it's at a very slow rate, and the expanding northern edge is about 11,000 feet from Barton Pond.

He said a typical rate of groundwater movement might be a foot per day, which in theory might put the plume about 30 years away from reaching Barton Pond.

Naud agrees with the DEQ that there's no immediate threat to the city's drinking water supply via Barton Pond. He said most of the mass is moving east, and it's projected to hit the river downstream of Barton Pond.

He described the plume's march northward as "gentle spreading" and agreed it's something that needs to be watched closely. But he said monitoring wells aren't yet showing the plume is expanding northward in very high concentrations.

He said residential drinking water wells along Elizabeth Road, just west of Wagner Road and south of Dexter-Ann Arbor Road, have had dioxane readings that have stayed in the low single digits for a long time.

"The question is -- is there a pathway to Barton Pond?" he said, adding more monitoring and modeling is needed to provide needed assurances.

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.