Governor Gretchen Whitmer and six other governors have signed a petition urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to monitor and collect data on microplastics.
The petition requests that the EPA add microplastics to its unregulated contaminants list, which is a list of emerging contaminants not currently required to be monitored under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Being added to the list means that microplastics would fall under the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR). The rule would allow data to be collected on microplastics and for the development of a monitoring program for drinking water across the country.
The governors said a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act requires the EPA to place microplastics on the monitoring list because the petitionhas the signatures of seven governors. Michigan’s Whitmer joins governors — all Democratic — from New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Connecticut.
Tami Renkoski, the co-founder of the Michigan Microplastics Coalition, said she was “thrilled” that Governor Whitmer signed the petition. “We appreciate all the work she has done to protect our Great Lakes and our beautiful state of Michigan,” she said.
Renkoski said the current drinking water treatment systems were not designed for PFAS or for microplastics. “So there would need to be some work done to get systems up to speed to remove those contaminants,” she said.
Renkoski said because microplastics are an emerging contaminant, researchers are still working on determining the maximum amount of microplastics people can consume before it becomes dangerous. “In the few testings that have been done with drinking water, we are definitely seeing microplastics,” Renkoski said. “But how much is too much, we don’t know yet.”
Microplastics are pervasive. Renkoski said they’ve been found in all parts of the human body and in fish in the Great Lakes. “It's like we have the faucet and the bathtub turned on, and it's overflowing,” she said. “It's nonstop. We have created so many plastic products, they're everywhere.”
Research on microplastic health and environmental effects is ongoing. Renkoski said they won’t know the extent of the problem until more data is gathered on microplastics. She says the petition is a step in the right direction.
