The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, MI) reports:

Two million dollars of relief is coming to Antrim County to make drinking water safe for those who live near one of the largest toxic chemical plumes in Michigan.

State officials released grant money to pay for a 25,000-foot-long extension to an existing public water main in Mancelona, despite a grant moratorium and budgetary woes that threaten deep spending cuts in Michigan. The project will provide a safe alternative for 80 homes and 210 vacant lots at Shanty Creek resort now plagued with risks of dangerous groundwater.

[...]

The source of the contamination is an industrial site in Mancelona, where harmful solvents were dumped for a span of two decades, long before any environmental regulations existed, said Bob Wagner, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality regional headquarters in Gaylord.

Long gone is the company that caused the pollution, but the plume now stretches more than six miles northwest and is more than a mile across, carrying with it tricholoethylene, or TCE. The poisonous chemical is not breaking down, only being diluted in the groundwater, Wagner said.

The potent, problematic plume will be discussed by state and local officials at a public forum at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Summit Conference Center at Shanty Creek.

Read more here.

Also be sure to check out this list of Frequently Asked Questions (MS Word or HTML) regarding the Mancelona TCE plume. The FAQ was created by a group calling itself ACUTE, the Antrim Coalition United Through Ecology.