Gazette file photo The Houghton County Memorial Airport terminal is seen in this 2020 Gazette file photo. The airport has received a one million dollar grant from the Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. The grants are to address PFAS contamination related to the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam.

LANSING — Houghton County Memorial Airport will receive a million dollars in state funds designed to address PFAS contanimation related to the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy last week that grants totaling $9 million have been awarded to 19 municipal airports across the state, seven of which are in the Upper Peninsula.

According to an EGLE press release, the grant funding will be used for a wide range of activities including PFAS testing and monitoring, potential source control and cleanup strategies for groundwater and stormwater, and cleaning of firefighting equipment and replacement firefighter turn-out gear.

Grants ranged from $150,000 to $1,000,000. Three airports were awarded the top amount of a million. In addition to Houghton County Memorial, the former Marquette County Airport in Negaunee Township and Pellston Regional Airport in Northern Lower Michigan were $1,000,000 recipients. Other U.P. airports receiving EGLE grants Chippewa County International Airport / Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation – $475,000; Delta County Airport – $476,697, Ford Dickinson County Airport – $462,600 and Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport – $150,000

EGLE said a total of 21 applications requesting $14.8 million for the $9 million in allocated grant funding were received in response to the request for proposals from the Michigan PFAS Response Team (MPART).

Commonly known as PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a group of potentially harmful man-made chemicals used in thousands of applications globally, including firefighting foam, food packaging, and many other consumer and industrial applications. They do not break down easily in the environment and are known to accumulate in the tissues of living organisms.

MPART is a team of seven state agencies established under an Executive Directive in 2017 to ensure coordination in implementing a response to PFAS contamination. MPART became an enduring body under an Executive Order in 2019. The goal of MPART is to protect public health by identifying sources of PFAS, addressing PFAS contamination at the sources, and working with local health departments to protect people in areas where groundwater is impacted by PFAS.

To learn more about PFAS and what the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) is doing to address PFAS, go to Michigan.gov/PFASresponse.