Today, just over 25 Michigan environmental, climate, and public health groups, in conjunction with Food & Water Watch, sent a letter to Governor Whitmer calling on her to sign a petition demanding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitor microplastics in our water.

“We can’t manage the problem if we don’t have data,” said Tami Renkoski, Certified Industrial Hygienist and Co-Founder of the Michigan Microplastics Coalition. “We need Governor Whitmer to help lead this effort to convince EPA to monitor drinking water across the country for the protection of our Great Lakes and the people of Michigan. A coordinated federal approach would be far more cost-effective and would bring consistency rather than individual states monitoring microplastics in drinking water.”  

Microplastics are a widespread presence – especially in our drinking water – and pose a major threat to our health. It’s estimated that each year the average person consumes 4,000 or more microplastic particles from drinking water, or the equivalent to a credit card each week. The credit card each week is from all sources, inhalation, ingestion, skin contact.

In Michigan, 22 million pounds of microplastics enter the Great Lakes every year – mostly from single use plastics, old fishing gear and tire dust and microfibers from washing clothes. Fish in the Great Lakes have some of the highest concentration of microplastics in the world. 

Microplastics in drinking water are currently unregulated and unmonitored at the federal level. However, a clause in the Safe Drinking Water Act says that if at least seven governors petition the EPA to monitor a specific contaminant, the agency must add it to a monitoring list if it does not determine that it would preclude monitoring a contaminant of more pressing public health concern. The letter calls on Governor Whitmer to add her name to the petition.

“Michiganders are exceedingly proud of our Water Winter Wonderland: the Great Lake State, the center of 20% of the world’s fresh surface water,” said FWW volunteer Katie Olsson. “I know Governor Whitmer shares that pride. As Michiganders, we have a sacred and profound responsibility to protect our spectacular water. Governor Whitmer has been a leader in addressing water contamination – especially as one of the first Governors to act on PFAS pollution in our drinking water – and she can continue this tradition and be the first governor to petition the EPA to monitor microplastics.”

This letter also comes as Michigan state legislators have introduced a series of bills addressing microplastic contamination at the state level – an effort that would be aided by monitoring at the federal level, which would make it cheaper and easier for the state to conduct their own testing.