The process of industrialization is one of the principal contributors to water pollution, which has become a major public health issue in recent years. This is largely due to companies improperly disposing of their waste, which can have major consequences for the surrounding environment and the general population.
In our home city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a medical device manufacturer improperly disposed of 1,4-dioxane into a tributary of the Huron River. The contamination plume covers 4 to 6 square miles and is the largest single contamination event of dioxane in history. Despite over 30 years of cleanup, some areas still report concentrations over 300 times Michigan's health standard of 7.2 parts per billion.
