MADISON HEIGHTS (WWJ) -- Around $3 million has been spent to clean up the site of the infamous "green ooze" along the freeway in Madison Heights.
It's been four years since green ooze leaked from a building onto eastbound I-696 at Couzens, but the cleanup is still ongoing, according to the state government.
The chemicals, which included hexavalent chromium and PFAS, came from Electroplating Services along 10 Mile Rd.
The building has since been demolished, but crews have been removing contaminated soil from the property. That's according to Joe DeGrazia, who has been overseeing the project for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).
"We're now in the process of excavating the soil where the former dry plating facility was. "We're hoping to be done with the excavation portion of this from mid to late January," said DeGrazia, an Incident Management Specialist for EGLE.
"We'll still do long-term monitoring to check the residual levels," he said. "After we do the excavation the site will be able to be redeveloped. And I believe the city has plans for that."
The building's owner, Gary Sayers, was sentenced to one year in federal prison after pleading guilty to improperly storing hazardous waste. He also had to pay the U.S. EPA nearly $1.5 million for the cleanup.
In 2020, Sayers was released early because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
EGLE has said there is no health threat to the public.