Chris Hufnagel, (right), senior vice president of corporate strategy, and Dave Latchana, (left) associate general counsel at Wolverine World Wide headquarters in Rockford on Sept. 12, 2017. (Nic Antaya | MLive.com)

By: Garret Ellison | gellison@mlive.com

ROCKFORD, MI — A senior Wolverine World Wide executive admits the global shoe company erred by leaving weathered leather scraps to litter the Rogue River banks in Rockford for years after demolition of the company's tannery complex.

"We shouldn't have done it," said Chris Hufnagel, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Rockford-based Wolverine. "And we are committed to cleaning it up."

Hufnagel said Wolverine is waiting for vegetation to recede this fall before cleaning up the litter, which is plainly visible near the Wolverine store at 235 N. Main Street.

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Years after demolition of former @WolverineWW tannery in Rockford, leather scraps still litter Rogue River bank. pic.twitter.com/Ug1Etwgm9I — Garret M. Ellison (@garretellison) August 10, 2017

Leather and rubber scraps -- even entire shoe soles bearing the Hush Puppies brand name -- litter the bank along the White Pine Trail near the store parking lot. Rockford residents have long known about the partly-buried scraps and leather hides.

After MLive published photos of the litter on Aug. 23, Hufnagel's reaction to learning the leather scraps remained on the riverbanks was to ask, "how they got there and why we didn't pick them up?"

"We have a responsibility," he said. "We live and work in this community. Our kids go to these schools. We fish in the Rogue River. We have to be good corporate citizens."

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An old Hush Puppies brand shoe sole found along the Rogue River in Rockford on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. (Garret Ellison | MLive.com)

Hufnagel said he doesn't why they haven't been addressed until now, but indicated that leaving them was wrong.

"We should have dealt with that," he said.

"I don't know how or when it happened," he said. "I would say we benefit today by living in a society that has greater regulation and greater control. And I think the Earth is a better place for that. I think some things that were done however many years ago, in hindsight, we can sit here today with the benefit of time and hindsight and education and information and say, "man, that probably wasn't the right thing to do."

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Here's a map of the buried leather on @WolverineWW property in Rockford https://t.co/7ufBIdA5D7 pic.twitter.com/7cek6B0vnM — Garret M. Ellison (@garretellison) August 24, 2017

The removal work is part of larger environmental testing this fall around the former tannery, which was demolished in 2010.

Wolverine is sampling the site and river for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS, (also called perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs).

The chemicals were in Scotchgard, which Wolverine used at the tannery to waterproof pigskin for Hush Puppies shoes.

The Concerned Citizens for Responsible Redevelopment in Rockford pushed the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to take a closer look at PFAS concerns around the tannery and offsite waste disposal areas last year.

Richard Rediske, a scientist at Grand Valley State University's Annis Water Resources Institute, said that if the leather on the riverbank was treated with Scotchgard, regular stormwater runoff may be helping spread PFAS.

There is a fish consumption advisory for perfluoroctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), a PFAS compound that was the key ingredient in Scotchgard, upstream of the Rockford dam.

Rediske said investigation work needs to find the PFOS source, whether that be the leather debris, contaminated groundwater venting to the river, legacy contamination in the sediment behind the dam or a combination of each.

“The leather is everywhere," Rediske said. "It could have been treated with PFOS and could be a source of PFOS being found in fish in that area.”

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Downtown Rockford pictured over the Rogue River on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. (Garret Ellison | MLive.com

Hufnagel said there's an "onus" on Wolverine to set an example.

"I'm confident that we're going to clean it up this fall," he said.

Hufnagel met with MLive prior to a Sept. 12 meeting at Rockford High School to address Wolverine's contamination testing in Belmont, where private drinking water wells are polluted with Scotchgard chemicals from a tannery waste dump.

At the meeting, which lasted more than four hours and drew about 400 people, Hufnagal repeated many of the answers to questions posed by MLive earlier that day.

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Map shows initial study area and expanded "buffer zone" testing area for PFAS chemicals around an old Wolverine World Wide tannery sludge dump site at 1855 House Street NE in Plainfield Township. (

Kent County Health Department

)

In the interview, Hufnagel addressed Wolverine's response to contamination near its old dump site at 1855 House Street NE, company waste record-keeping practices, the tannery demolition and why the property has not been redeveloped.

Excerpts from that interview, which is edited for clarity, are below:

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Q: What is Wolverine doing to rectify the House Street situation?

A: "I think at the highest level, Wolverine is committed to provide residents a confidence in their drinking water... We were notified in March of this year, the first time by the DEQ about the potential. We did some testing in April. The April testing came back... Those eight sites came back with either detect or low detect. And then, we want to understand what does this mean or potentially mean. We began to work internally. And then in June, the Belmont Armory did a well test as part of the Department of Defense, as you probably know and are very familiar with this. And they came back, I think at 97 parts per trillion on that test.

"Almost simultaneously with that, there was a request for a well drilling permit at a vacant parcel. And in conjunction with DEQ and the Kent County Health Department, giving the sort of underlying concern of PFAS may have been disposed, or material with PFAS in it may have been disposed at the House Street site back in the late '60s, we agreed to do a larger sampling in the area. I think we went out to 28 residences, 21 agreed to be sampled. That happened in July, and we got the results on the 7th and 8th of August. Of those 21 results, it's essentially a third, a third, a third. A third were low detect, a third were between 0 and 70, and then a third were greater than 70. We got those results on a Tuesday, and that same day, we said 'we have to find a water solution for the residents that have been tested.' So, we went and we bought Meijer gift cards, and offered to buy bottled water for all the residences that were sampled, regardless of their results. So, we didn't say, 'If you're 0 to 70 we're not going to offer you a solution.' We offered it to everybody.

"And then we went out and secured, and began to install, a water filtration system. The one that the DEQ recommends and is certified for PFAS removal. So, we began to install those that same day. The Friday of that week, so just the timeline, the sequence of events, that Monday and Tuesday we got the first batch of results back, out with water to the residents, ordered filtration systems, and by that Friday, we had submitted a plan to the DEQ to test our own site, of the House Street property."

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Q: Why did Wolverine not begin testing the House Street property for contamination immediately once there was suspected PFAS in the area?

A: "It was in August that we submitted a plan. I think we were working through all of those things internally on what the next best steps were. And then immediately in June, when the Belmont Armory issue arose, our focus at that point immediately was, what do we do about the residents? And how do we work to get those wells sampled and then, once the samples did come back with the third exceeding the 70 parts per trillion, how do we find them a short-term solution for filtration, while simultaneously then beginning the plan to further understand the site?"

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Q: Is this a bureaucratic process situation?

A: "Wolverine is trying to move as quickly as we can, throughout the process. And that's something that we're committed to, and that's something that, and I think hopefully through our actions, you're seeing that approach. You're seeing the approach of when we found out something was amiss with the water, with the first batch of results, again, keep in mind, the results that we did the first batch in April, showed low or no detect in those households. And then as soon as we found the batch of results, the 21 tests, the third coming back in exceedance of the EPA guidelines, that's when we quickly focused on the residents first, and how do we get a solution in here. And then, simultaneously with that, coming up with a plan the DEQ would approve, which we did by that Friday and we commenced drilling last week (Sept. 5)."

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Q: What is Wolverine's long-term solution for safe water on House Street?

A: "Right now, we're very focused on the short term: What is the plan, how do we communicate it effectively, how do we get the word out to the residents, and how do we offer them solutions that give them confidence in their water. I think the longer-term solution is, confidence in the water. And I think, it's early for us to speculate on what those solutions could be. I'm sure you know what the potential solutions are. Whether it's digging wells at different depths, whether it's a community well, whether it's tapping into the municipal water supply, I think those are all alternatives that, as we fully understand and characterize and dimensionalize what's happening in the House Street area, then we will work closely with state and local agencies, what is the right recommended approach."

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Q: Would Wolverine pay for whole house filters or municipal main extension?

A: "I think what I would say today is that we're not taking any options off the table."

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Q: Where else was tannery waste dumped?

A: "This is certainly an emerging topic that we're trying to fully understand all of the different places. We know Northeast Gravel was an additional site... after 1970. The House Street site we operated — again, I know you know this — but it was a state licensed and regulated disposal facility. The material, the byproduct we took there from the tannery operations in Rockford, we did it not under the cover of darkness. The state regulated what we did. We did that for four years, and then subsequent to 1970, we found other sites to dispose of the waste."

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Q: State records indicate tannery waste was dumped at the State Disposal Landfill (a Superfund site) on the East Beltline. When I asked, Wolverine said 'we don't have records of that.' Does Wolverine not have complete waste disposal records?

A: "I think we're aware of what has been said, what has been printed. I think we continue to do research. We're back-checking against what our own records are. And again, our focus right now, the time that we've devoted to this, and our attention right now is really working to resolve the House Street issue. And in finding a short-term solution for the residents there. And then obviously, working towards a longer-term solution. We are looking at our own internal records on what our disposal practices were over the past five decades."

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Q: Wolverine has said it didn't know Scotchgard contained PFAS until last year. How is that possible?

A: "I think we used the 3M product, the Scotchgard to add performance enhancements to our products. This PFAS is, I think we would all agree, it is an emerging issue. There is not a lot known about it. We're learning more, honestly, on a daily basis. We certainly are committed today to using environmentally responsible products in managing our business in a responsible way. I certainly think over the years, our focus today where we sit in sort of moving forward is, how do we become better stewards? And everything we do across the supply chain, how do we do it with a strong focusing on what is the right thing to do with all the best information we have, and then making the best decisions possible."

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Q: Why haven't the leather scraps on the river banks been cleaned up yet?

A: "So, this is where you're going to get the straight, unvarnished answer. Like, it shouldn't have. We've submitted a plan to the DEQ to have those removed. We're waiting for the vegetation to recede this fall. That will be removed this fall. The one concern that we are in full transparency is, there is some concern about some of the potential erosion issues on the Rogue River, so we don't want to make, we don't want to do the right thing by cleaning up what we did. We want to clean up what we did, but we don't want to make a bigger environmental issue by affecting the creek. So, we've been in constant contact with the DEQ on this. They know that we want to solve it. Personally, sitting here today, we shouldn't have done it. And, we are committed to cleaning it up."

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Q: How do you reconcile past waste disposal practices with Wolverine's corporate responsibility statement?

A: "When I began to be engaged in this — I have two small boys, and I have a well. When you go home at night, what I thought to myself is, how would I want a company to act? What would I want a company to do? And I think we believe today, that we are taking a proactive, aggressive approach to manage this the right way. It's probably going to take longer than you would want it to, just because it's a process, and we're working with various agencies along the way. We're working with an emerging compound, an emerging substance that, frankly, when you sit with experts, they can't always tell you exactly what it does. And I think we're learning in real time."

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Q: How robust is Wolverine's waste disposal file? The EPA asked very specific questions about waste disposal records in 2012 and there was very little response.

A: "I think we feel pretty good about the information and the documentation that we have kept through the years. And I think we're in certainly a newer era of regulation and compliance and manifests in how you're disposing of these things, and what you're actually doing. I would say generally, from an operational standpoint, that that is one of the strengths of the company. It's one of the things that allows us to be a global business. So, operationally, I think that is one of the strengths of the company."

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Q: Why is the tannery site in downtown Rockford still not redeveloped?

A: "I think for us, when we made the decision to close the tannery and demolish the building, we had thoughts of redeveloping that site. And we still have thoughts of redeveloping that site. For us, what does the community want? Do we want to build there? And then, just the investment dollars to actually make that happen. If you remember, coming out of, this is sort of the recession days — 2008, 2009, 2010 — wasn't as robust of a market that we find ourselves on. We had some redevelopment plans. We talked about relocating the company store. We talked about a farmers market. We talked about a bunch, which I thought would've been great ideas, and there was excitement in the community for us to go do that. It was going to be sort of a partnership between us and potentially of other partners. But, honestly, there's the financial conditions at the time, and the level of investment required to do that, just gave us pause to go do that. It's really nothing other than what is the long term vision that we have for that site? How does it fit in to sort of a master plan for the Rockford community? And then, just the bandwidth in energy and investment dollars to go do that."

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Q: The market has changed since then. What do you need to happen?

A: "The market conditions are certainly much better today than they were when we were originally conceiving and envisioning what that could be. And ultimately, when we decided to shelve that project, the market conditions are certainly better. I would say what's preventing us from going to do that right now, is just simply, we have a massive project right now, as part of our transformation effort, and you guys have covered it. Other outlets that cover our transformation project is involved. We did a big acquisition in 2012 of four brands based in Boston. That just takes a lot of time and effort. So, it's not for lack of ideas. I think right now, and it's not for lack of anything other than where are we going to prioritize what's the most important to the company right now. Again, I would love to get back after that project. I know Blake would love to get back after that project. It just comes down to, when you're a publicly traded company, and you're dealing with what we're dealing with, a big part of strategy is what are you not going to go spend time on. And right now, we're prioritizing this transformation effort."

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Q: Contamination on the property has not played a factor whatsoever?

A: "No... As I sit here today, with all the information I have — because I was close to the retail store redevelopment, working on that project — it became more about what is the long term vision for that property. What do we want it to be in the investment decision. We did not get to a place where we were making a go or no go decision based upon the conditions in the field."

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Q: Are you satisfied with the way the demolition was conducted -- in terms of environmental controls in place, disposal of debris -- and that everything was done in an above-board manner in a way that was protective of public health?

A: "Yeah, I think the way in which we managed that project, I think the headline there is that we were worked extraordinarily closely with state agencies and local agencies to make sure we did that in an appropriate manner. I don't have any concerns about how that took place. With that said, I'm not happy that we've got leather scraps still sitting on the banks of the Rogue River. Like I said earlier, we should have dealt with that. But I'm not aware of any sort of other issues related to the demolition of the tannery. All the information I have is that the state DEQ would say that they have been with us every step of the way."

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Q: If there are health concerns related to the dump sites, sicknesses like cancers, organ diseases, that are linked to chemicals that were used by Wolverine, or were disposed of by Wolverine, how would you react to that news, when that comes out, if that comes out?

A: "It's hard to react to hypothetical, to be honest with you. That's a pretty broad question you just asked. I go back to, Wolverine, we've been here for over a century, and we plan to be here for a century more. Hopefully the steps that we're taking with regards to the House Street issue, and then remedying some leftover issues with regard to the tannery, hopefully that is a visible sign of our commitment to the community, the citizens there. I think, if and when, God forbid, if that situation to arise for anybody, we'll obviously deal with that with the facts we have at the time."

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Q: At the end of the day, do you consider Wolverine to be a good corporate citizen?

A: "I do. I do. I think Wolverine is a good company. It's a great company. It's a good company because we've got great people. And I think we continue to work and find ways to be better. We're not perfect. But, we are committed to doing the right thing. We're committed to the residents of West Michigan, and wherever we operate office around the world. And I think we aspire, you know, being a good corporate citizen is a very high bar. And we aspire to do that every single day. Are there days when we don't live up to the expectation? Absolutely. But again, I go back to Wolverine's a good company because I think we've got great people. And I think we care, and we're trying to do the right thing. And again, it's easy for me to sit here and say that to you. At the same time, hopefully, what you're going to see our response to, or what our response has been to the House Street area, will be testament to that. And I'm guessing that you'll be here in six months talking to me about something else. And that's not because I know something else is going to come up, but it's the world we live in. And I think while we don't know everything today, I am committed, I know the team is committed to doing the right thing. And so yeah, by that measure, I would say that we're a good corporate citizen."