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Whitmer orders review of inspections after discovery of Detroit freeway ooze

She called the ooze “very concerning” Monday.
Credit: AP
FILE - In this June 26, 2019 file photo, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks about new lead testing rules for drinking water at the Romney Building in Lansing, Mich. Whitmer and Republican legislative leaders announced Monday, Sept. 9 that they will work to enact a state budget without including a long-term funding plan to fix Michigan’s deteriorating roads. The agreement should forestall the possibility of an Oct. 1 partial government shutdown. But it also strips the first-year governor of leverage as she seeks a nearly $2 billion influx of new spending on road and bridge construction in a state that ranks second to last nationally in per-capita road spending. (AP Photo/David Eggert, File)

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered Michigan's environmental agency to review its pollution-inspection procedures and says her administration is reviewing if criminal charges can be filed after the discovery of a green substance along Interstate 696 in suburban Detroit. 

She called the ooze “very concerning” Monday. 

She says the situation shows the need for “broad reforms” to address underfunding and understaffing at the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. 

Whitmer is urging lawmakers to better fund the agency and to pass legislation ensuring polluters pay for cleanup. 

The substance is groundwater contaminated by industrial waste called hexavalent chromium from a closed-down electroplating shop in Madison Heights by the name of Electro-Plating Services. 

Credit: AP
This photo provided by Michigan Department of Transportation toxic chemical substances leaked along Interstate 696 in Madison Heights, Mich., on Dec. 20, 2019. The discovery led to an investigation of an old industrial site near the interstate. State regulators said high levels of multiple contaminants have been found in soil and groundwater around the former Electro-Plating Services. (Michigan Department of Transportation via AP)

The chemical oozed from the basement of the company and entered the the freeway's storm sewer and sewer clean-out between the business and the service drive. 

Electro-Plating Services has already been fined $1.5 million and it's owner received one year of prison for illegally storing hazardous waste.

The 13 ON YOUR SIDE contributed to this reporting.

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