UPDATE: Chamber says Michigan polluter’s store deserves controversial award

ROCKFORD, MI — Sandy Wynn-Stelt thought she was being pranked when a friend sent her an announcement that the company which poisoned her drinking water had been honored as “business of the year" by the local chamber of commerce.

But it wasn’t a joke.

Wolverine World Wide, a global footwear giant responsible for widespread contamination of the groundwater in northern Kent County, was named the 2019 “Business of the Year” by the Rockford Chamber of Commerce at its membership meeting on Friday, Jan. 17.

On Tuesday, Wolverine posted a photo of its Rockford Footwear Depot store manager Mark Roach accepting the award on its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Wynn-Stelt, whose husband, Joel, died in 2016 of liver cancer that she blames on tainted drinking water, feels like the award is a “slap in the face.”

“It makes me not want to do business in Rockford if that’s the chamber’s view on what the people of Belmont are going through,” she said.

Wynn-Stelt is among hundreds of Rockford and Belmont area residents who are suing Wolverine because of the contamination. She lives next to Wolverine’s House Street landfill, where the company dumped sludge from its Rockford tannery in the 1960s. The waste contained high amounts of toxic PFAS chemicals the tannery used to waterproof shoe leather.

Related: Cancer, thyroid problems plague Wolverine dump neighbors

PFAS are a family of thousands of synthetic chemicals used in nonstick and waterproof products and firefighting foam. Exposure to the chemicals has been linked to health problems like cancer and autoimmune disease. They have been nicknamed “forever chemicals” because the compounds resist breaking down in the environment.

Contamination from House Street and other local Wolverine dump sites was discovered in 2017. The pollutants have spread across 25 square miles and rendered much of the northern Kent County groundwater in that area unsafe to drink.

It’s the most severe example of PFAS contamination in Michigan.

The pollution is also prevalent in the Rogue River, which flows past Wolverine’s former tannery. Toxic surface water foam occurs regularly at the Rockford dam, a popular local fishing spot where there’s a fish consumption advisory for PFAS chemicals.

Wolverine is excavating portions of the former tannery, the riverbank and river sediments to remove heavy metals like chromium and lead under a negotiated settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which ordered the work last year.

The company also recently agreed to pay $69.5 million to extend Plainfield Township’s municipal water system to neighborhoods affected by the contamination.

Rockford Chamber Director Linda Southwick said the award decision was based on a popular vote among the chamber’s 400-some members.

Award criteria includes a business’s support for local civic causes and the business community, job creation or local investment, workforce education, community leadership, customer service and involvement in quality of life projects or humanitarian efforts.

Southwick cited Wolverine’s civic efforts to help the local United Way and North Kent Connect charities and its support for local concerts and film screenings.

She said the award is more of a “business to business” thing, but she understands the concerns expressed by Belmont residents with tainted drinking water.

“We know the PFAS issue is very serious, not only here but worldwide,” Southwick said. “But Wolverine along with (the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Department of Health and Human Services) are responding to the issue.”

“We see the trucks leaving every day through town. Yes, we are sensitive to that.”

Wolverine is represented at the Rockford chamber by depot manager Roach, the board vice president.

In response to the question of whether it thought accepting the award was appropriate given the circumstances around its PFAS contamination, Wolverine was unapologetic.

“Wolverine Worldwide has been a part of this community for almost 140 years, and we couldn’t be more proud to call Rockford our hometown. We are honored to have been selected by the Chamber of Commerce for this recognition, and grateful to our employees for the positive impact they make in our community every day,” the company said.

Belmont resident Jennifer Carney is among the hundreds of local homeowners whose drinking water tested positive for high PFAS levels near Wolverine’s dump. She and Wynn-Stelt are also members of the Wolverine Community Advisory Group (CAG), a citizen-led board created last year by the EPA to help involve the community in cleanup efforts.

Carney said she’s not impressed by Wolverine’s charitable efforts.

“It’s like free advertising. You send employees out into the community and it’s a tax write-off. Every big company does that,” she said.

Lynn McIntosh, a Rockford activist who spent years working to expose Wolverine’s pollution, said she was not surprised to learn of the award. City officials and the chamber were unfriendly to her group’s efforts to watchdog Wolverine.

McIntosh said there’s a pervasive “someone else’s problem” attitude in Rockford toward the PFAS contamination, which hasn’t affected the city’s current municipal groundwater wells. Rockford stopped using the Rogue River for drinking water in 2000.

“It’s endemic,” she said. “It’s just how it’s always been. Even with glaring information, it’s like there’s nothing wrong in this town. It’s like we’re truth-repellant — real facts and realities don’t stick. It’s a fairy tale here. I think it’s really sad, but I’m not surprised.”