Livonia Residents File Lawsuit Against Ford Motor Company for Water Contamination
By Beth Florkowski of Fausone Bohn, LLP posted in News and Press on Tuesday, August 15, 2017.
An Illinois law firm filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Wayne County Circuit Court on behalf of over 100 Livonia residents who live near the Ford Transmission Plant. The residents claim that the chemical trichloroethylene, a common industrial chemical, has contaminated their drinking water. Ford admitted in February of 2016 that the chemical was present in groundwater samples underneath the plant, and completed further investigative testing of the groundwater in October of 2016.
Ford has contended since the original discovery that none of this groundwater would affect Livonia’s drinking water. Great Lakes Water Authority provides all city water, which sources its water from the Detroit River and Lake Huron.
A statement by a Ford spokesman revealed that the company plans to fully cooperate with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to further prove that there is no risk associated with the contaminated groundwater. While the MDEQ plans to continue investigating they indicate that so far all samples show that there is no health risk to residents and there is no significant threat to drinking water.