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ANTRIM COUNTY - When all there is to do at the moment is watch and monitor the large TCE plume wandering through Antrim County, ACUTE has wrapped up their last five years of work and dissolved for a time until the group may be needed again.

At the January meeting, commissioners agreed to support a resolution put together by ACUTE for the group to go into "sleep mode" as Chairperson Gary Knapp said. Antrim County United Through Ecology, an advocacy group made up of various organizations and municipalities, has brought attention to the groundwater contamination and promoted and protected public safety and property values.

ACUTE, in coordination with MDEQ and other experts, has a good grasp of the areas of contamination and the predicted flow. With the development of MAWSA, and the extension of the water and sewer system, area residents affected by the contamination are being provided with safe drinking water. MDEQ and the consultants, MACTEC, are closely monitoring the migration of the plume.

The plume, one of the largest in the country, is a result of the improper disposal of Trichloroethylene, or TCE, used as a cleaning solvent for heavy machinery and often a vapor degreaser for automotive manufacturing, at the former Wickes Manufacturing in Mancelona.

Contaminated groundwater has been slowly migrating from Mancelona northwest to the Cedar River/Schuss Mountain area for the last 50 to 60 years.

One of the biggest and most urgent concerns is the contamination of the Cedar River Well Field, which consists of four community water-supply wells, located 4,300 feet down from the leading edge of the plume. Depending on the leakiness of the clay layers, researchers say that the TCE could leak into the aquifer or pass over it.

"The plume is aiming right at it. When it's going to get there is the big question," Dean Branson of ACUTE said. "It could take as many as 80 years - that's the slowest."

The 80-year estimate would be if the contamination in the deep aquifer, which is currently 12,000 feet away from the CRWF moved at 150 feet per year. But the TCE located 4,300 feet above in the shallow aquifer could moved as fast as 350 feet per year (depending on the permeability of the layers) contaminating the well field in as few as 12 years, or in 2020.

But as the DEQ monitors the migration and provides safe drinking water, for now, ACUTE does not feel it is necessary to continue it's regular monthly meetings.

"Why meet on a monthly basis, if all we could do is watch it?" Branson said.

But, if the situation changes or becomes more urgent, it could trigger the organization to come together again.

Knapp detailed three scenarios that ACUTE believes would require a reactivation of the organization: if new residential wells show TCE, if sentinel wells show TCE or if data from sentinel wells show the clay layer is not protecting the Cedar River Well Field.

"If any of these three things happen, we're going to reactivate something like ACUTE because the problem is far from over," Knapp said.

The commissioners agreed to a resolution that an organization would be restarted if any of those three scenarios occurred.

ACUTE wants to ensure that down the road, future concerned citizens and groups will have information on the plume and on ACUTE and its work.

"We want to leave in public record some documentation that would live beyond ACUTE," Knapp said. "We have not solved the problem - we've just provided safe drinking water to all affected."

The DEQ provides information quarterly through a newsletter and on the website, and according to Knapp, the department and the consultants will provide updates whenever asked.

Hadley Robinson can be reached at hrobinson@michigannewspapers.com or by calling 231-5338523.