MADISON HEIGHTS (WWJ) - Federal and state officials are on scene in Oakland County, conducting dozens of soil tests to determine the levels of contamination from the green ooze along I-696.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking the lead at the site of a former industrial electro-plating company in Madison Heights that is responsible for the toxic substance that seeped onto the freeway before Christmas.
Drilling at the shuttered business at 10 Mile Rd. and Couzens Ave. is expected to take two days.
"We've got drill rigs out here drilling soil borings, putting in temporary monitoring wells and collecting water samples out of the storm sewer," Tracy Kecskemeti, with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, told WWJ's Jon Hewett on Thursday.
It's not a question of whether or not there's contamination, she explained.
"That is all to determine the extent of the contamination," Kecskemeti said. "We know that we have contamination moving from the building north and coming out on the side of the highway. What we want to see is there contamination moving in any other direction."
Kecskemeti said there is no immediate threat to drinking water or the general public.
"This is one of thousands of sites that have soil and ground water contaminated across the state. We have the resources to deal with a very small number of those," Kecskemeti said. "You know, we have sites on the Detroit Rive where that groundwater is migrating into the Detroit River every day...and all of those sites are ranked and prioritized based to threat to human health.
The company was shut down by the EPA and cleaned in 2016, officials said, after it was found the owner had been collecting toxic chemicals on site, rather than properly disposing of them. Officials say the current leakage is due seeping chromium and cyanide, cancer-causing chemicals, over the course of decades.
A recovery operation inside the building is intended to draw contaminated water back toward the building, Kecskemeti said, and EGLE will remain on site until the issue is resolved.
Drivers should continue to expect slow traffic along eastbound I-696 from after Woodward Ave. to Couzens due to ongoing HAZMAT cleanup. The right lane is blocked on eastbound I-696 at Couzens and the exit ramp is also closed until late January,
The business owner, meanwhile, could face further charges.