For years, regulators have been quietly clocking alarming PFAS numbers around the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Belmont. Now the state is telling the course’s owner to do something much more concrete than tweak the landscaping: pay to connect nearby homes to permanent municipal water.
State regulators have ordered the owner of the Boulder Creek Golf Club to extend permanent municipal water hookups to homes near a driving range that was built over buried PFAS-laced tannery and plating wastes. The move follows years of sampling that found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS in soil, groundwater and nearby ponds under the course. Under the new agreement, the company must also investigate the contamination plume, reimburse some state response costs, and provide interim bottled water or home filtration where needed. In other words, this is not the kind of “water hazard” golfers had in mind.
What the Order Requires
Under an Administrative Order on Consent signed in late April, Boulder Creek Development Corp. must provide permanent alternative water supplies to properties identified by state investigators and reimburse the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) roughly $100,000 for past response work. As detailed by the Michigan Attorney General, the order was filed after the state concluded the companies had not completed necessary cleanup steps and sets deadlines for sampling, interim measures and longer term remedies. The agreement stops short of an admission of liability but still compels immediate steps to protect residents' drinking water.
How Bad Was the Contamination?
State documents show the site contains some of the highest PFAS readings the agency has recorded. For example, a January 17, 2019 sample of tannery waste measured about 42,370,000 parts per trillion of PFOA and PFOS combined, and plating waste samples were reported above 1 million ppt. EGLE's order says the tannery waste cell was capped with permeable sand and vegetation, a design that allowed PFAS to leach into soil and groundwater, and that contaminated groundwater has migrated toward ponds and the Grand River. Regulators say the driving range sits directly atop the tannery cell and that irrigation of that area was reduced in 2020 and stopped before the 2021 season to slow leaching. These findings and the required response activities are laid out in EGLE's Administrative Order on Consent.
Officials and the Developer
“Michigan residents shouldn't have to worry about companies leaking forever chemicals in their backyards,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement, and EGLE Director Phil Roos called the pact “an important step toward ensuring residents have the clean, safe water they deserve,” according to the Attorney General's release. Boulder Creek agreed to the order but did not admit liability as part of the settlement, the office said. The Attorney General also noted the department filed a lawsuit in January 2025 after earlier efforts failed to secure the needed work. Michigan Attorney General
Local Impacts and Previous Actions
EGLE's order identifies a “Permanent Alternative Water Area” and lists specific properties in the Bittersweet neighborhood that have been sampled. It also notes that some homes there were connected to municipal water in 2021 after earlier testing. The order requires Boulder Creek to offer and install permanent hookups to affected properties and to properly plug private wells once connections are completed. Until hookups are in place, the company must provide bottled water and install point of use or point of entry filters where necessary, and EGLE can enforce a cleanup schedule with stipulated penalties for missed deadlines. The document also makes clear that entry of the order does not discharge the liability of other parties who may be responsible under state or federal law. EGLE
Who Else May Be Responsible
The landfill accepted tannery sludge and plating waste in the 1960s and 1970s, and historical records point to materials originating from regional tanneries and metal plating operations. Wolverine Worldwide, which has been the subject of earlier PFAS litigation and statewide remedies that required extensions of municipal water systems, has long been tied to tannery waste in the Rockford and Belmont area. That broader legal and remediation context is detailed in company filings and prior consent decrees. Wolverine Worldwide
What Comes Next for Neighbors
Residents affected by the plume should see offers for temporary water assistance and eventual hookup schedules in the coming months as the state and Boulder Creek carry out the AOC's timelines. Local reporting first described the enforcement move and contains more background on the neighborhood reaction, as reported by MLive.
