Rockford: a shoe town on the river, and the water cleanup that followed

Rockford is a small, popular town on the Rogue River just north of Grand Rapids. Its busy little downtown sits next to the Rockford Dam. For almost 140 years it was a company town for Wolverine World Wide, the footwear maker behind Hush Puppies, Merrell, and other brands. The company ran a big leather tannery right downtown. That heritage is a point of local pride. Wolverine still has a store in town and supports community events.

But Rockford is also the center of one of Michigan’s biggest pollution problems. For decades, the tannery used a waterproofing chemical — a type of “PFAS,” sometimes called “forever chemicals” — and dumped tannery waste in the area. Starting around 2017, residents and investigators found that those chemicals had spread through the groundwater and the Rogue River. The plume covers a large part of northern Kent County — one of the largest PFAS-contaminated areas in the state. Some families were told not to drink their well water. Signs still warn people about foam on the river. Wolverine has paid tens of millions of dollars to extend clean municipal water to affected neighborhoods. State and federal agencies still oversee the cleanup today. It’s a reminder that even a beloved hometown industry can leave a complicated legacy.