A bright greenish-yellow liquid gushed onto the side of a Michigan highway Friday, prompting a multiagency investigation that discovered the mystery substance was probably a chemical that is known to cause cancer. The hexavalent chromium-contaminated water that rushed from a retaining wall onto Interstate 696 in the Detroit suburb of Madison Heights appeared to come from a shuttered electroplating business, said Jill Greenberg, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
The department forced the business, Electro-Plating Services, to close in 2016 after inspectors found hundreds of containers of hazardous waste at the site. The owner, Gary Sayers, is serving a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally storing the waste.
Hexavalent chromium is usually created by an industrial process like plating or welding, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is toxic and particularly harmful to the respiratory system, kidneys, liver, skin and eyes.
A bright greenish-yellow liquid gushed onto the side of a Michigan highway Friday, prompting a multiagency investigation that discovered the mystery substance was probably a chemical that is known to cause cancer.
The hexavalent chromium-contaminated water that rushed from a retaining wall onto Interstate 696 in the Detroit suburb of Madison Heights appeared to come from a shuttered electroplating business, said Jill Greenberg, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
The department forced the business, Electro-Plating Services, to close in 2016 after inspectors found hundreds of containers of hazardous waste at the site. The owner, Gary Sayers, is serving a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally storing the waste.
Hexavalent chromium is usually created by an industrial process like plating or welding, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is toxic and particularly harmful to the respiratory system, kidneys, liver, skin and eyes.