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1,4-dioxane and maple/walnut syrup making #894229

Asked March 12, 2025, 2:14 PM EDT

I recently learned that black walnut trees can be tapped to make syrup, similar to maple trees. I have a bunch on my property and that sounds like a really cool idea...but I also live within the area of the Gelman 1,4-dioxane plume. Is it safe to collect sap from my trees, or might it be contaminated? Factors I can think of that enter into the equation:

  1. Is the contamination present in surface water, or only in subsurface groundwater? How deep?
  2. How deep do the tree roots reach in comparison?
  3. Do the trees readily uptake 1,4-dioxane from the soil and incorporate it in their sap?

Has any end-to-end research/testing been done on this (i.e. actually making maple/walnut/etc syrup in a contaminated area and testing the result)? If not, unless the answers to the above essentially rule out contamination as a concern, would it be possible to have such testing done at an affordable price (<$100 or so), or might there be any research groups interested in doing so and able to fund it?

Washtenaw County Michigan

Expert Response

Good afternoon and thank you for reaching out. I’m going to recommend you connect with Jesse Randall from our upper Peninsula research station. Here is Jesse’s contact information:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/jesse-randall 

best wishes,

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