FLINT, MI – Genesee County authorities believe they have a lead in pinpointing the exact location of a breach at a Flint company that led to thousands of gallons of chemicals spilling into the Flint River.
In a Friday, June 24, press briefing streamed live on Facebook, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson – who doubles as the county’s Emergency Management Coordinator – said investigators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy have not yet found a smoking gun in locating the breach, but they have “a very promising lead.”
“We have an area. We are literally dissecting it,” Swanson said. “Think of it as an autopsy. Young’s Environmental and different contractors to EGLE and the EPA are taking layers off like an archeological dig, because there’s so many pipes, and there’s so many different avenues that this could have got into where the sewer drain was that we don’t want to create another issue, but we want to document exactly where it came from and to keep it from happening again.”
Related: Seven days after Flint River spill, search continues for source of contamination
Swanson said the county is planning on issuing an updated no-contact order by Monday, June 27, that would tighten the area residents should avoid having contact with the river.
That geographical boundary originally was about a 22-mile stretch from Stepping Stone Falls in Flint to Willard Road near Montrose. But that order could be refined to include just a 2-3 mile area from Stepping Stone Falls to the Leith Street Bridge.
“The public health issue that caused the order initially, we’re well beyond that,” Swanson said. “We still want to make sure that we have our aquatic life protected, our wildlife or vegetation. We’re seeing no new outfalls come out that are from another source.”
Genesee County Board of Commissioners Chair Domonique Clemons said the county is not yet at a point where it wants to remove the no-contact orders, because it wants to ensure things are where they should be regarding the cleanup.
“We don’t want to lift the order before it’s time and for two primary reasons: as long as we have folks working in the river, as long as we have equipment and machinery there, we don’t want residents, fishers, boaters to get caught up into the devices that are being used,” Clemons said. “We don’t want to cause harm to the workers or to the residents there. But also we want to make sure that we’re protecting the health of our community.
“We are doing additional testing and we’re doing testing again to make sure that the water is safe and clean,” he continued. “But it is our hope that through the next couple of days we’ll be able to reduce that no-contact order, as it was previously mentioned, from being countywide to the Flint River just to the area where the outfall is.”
Read more: No-contact order remains in place for Flint River as chemical removal continues
Agencies from the city, the county and the state were among responding agencies Wednesday, June 15, to what the state said was a spill of several thousand gallons of an oil-based, dark black material with a petroleum smell.
They’ve previously said the spilled material, located within a 10-mile stretch of the river, looks similar to motor oil.
The no-contact order was issued the day of the spill. Two days later, officials identified that the spill came from Lockhart Chemical Co., a company that, according to its website, manufactures and markets chemical additives including sulfonates, emulsifiers, rust prevention additives, corrosion inhibitors and additives for metalworking fluids and greases in Flint.
Lockhart agreed to accept responsibility for the spill after a chemical fingerprinting analysis from three separate samples showed the substance was identical to substances at the Lockhart site on James P. Cole Boulevard, EGLE said previously. The company will be required to undertake and fund cleanup and remedial actions.
The EPA has taken 39,000 gallons of contaminants from the river as well as the Lockhart Plant in order to keep it from being breached ahead of a Sunday, June 26, forecast that projects thunderstorms and the potential for heavy rains.
“We have reserves and systems in place that it doesn’t stop our operation but also doesn’t create a problem,” Swanson said.
Clemons said work needs to be done to prevent future spills like what the city and county are currently dealing with, and conversations are being had at the local, state and federal levels to work toward that.
“Now, we need to start having conversations as a community, but also with our partners and the agencies, of what we can do to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, with this business or any other business,” Clemons said. “(We’re) looking at this from a policy lens but also as a community lens to make sure we’re holding folks accountable for our environment to keep ourselves protected.”
Read more at The Flint Journal:
Likely source of Flint River chemical spill had no leak detection on concrete vaults
State says Lockhart Chemical is likely source of Flint River chemical spill
Search continues for breach that led to Flint River chemical spill
Stay out of the Flint River, Genesee County health officer orders following oil spill
Oil-based material that spilled in Flint River came from Lockhart Chemical
