(WWJ) Fire crews and environmental experts were out along I-696 on Friday, at the former site of the infamous "green ooze."
Hugh McDiarmid, at Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE), said they got the call from officials in Madison Heights who were concerned about something seeping from the cement wall along eastbound I-696 at Couzins.
McDiarmid said it turns out what they saw was not the aforementioned ooze; but just water seeping through the wall that had been discolored.
McDiarmid said there is no health threat to the public in the area at this time.
Meanwhile, clean-up following the 2019 chemical spill from a nearby Electroplating plant — the source of the ooze — is still ongoing.
"The groundwater is being treated and, you know, there's progress toward... possible work on tearing down the building and removing some of that soil," McDiarmid told WWJ's Sandra McNeil. "But that's dependent on some moves by the city, and that's down the road a bit."
"The EPA last year installed a remediation system which basically turns the chemical, the contaminates in the soil inactive," he explained. "That's going to be continuing to filter and deactivate the harmful chemicals in the groundwater for many years. Michigan EAGLE is now maintaining that system, but that's an EPA system."
Contaminants at the site include hexavalent chromium, trichloroethylene (TCE), cyanide and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Since December 2019, EPA has collected a couple of hundred thousand gallons of contaminated groundwater and hauled it off-site for treatment and disposal.
In 2020, the man deemed responsible for situation was released early from prison because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gary Sayers, owner of Electro-Plating Services in Madison Heights, pleaded guilty to illegally storing hazardous chemicals.
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