DETROIT, MI — State environmental inspectors are investigating “potentially hazardous liquids” found at a Detroit property owned by the same person connected to green ooze that breached an I-696 barrier in Madison Heights.
Officials with the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy on Friday, Jan. 10 said they were investigating a site at 5900 Commonwealth Street after Detroit Fire Department inspectors discovered liquids earlier in the day.
The property already had been looked at in December as part of a review of all properties controlled by Gary Sayers, the man who once owned Electro-Plating Services tied to the green ooze.
At that time, no potentially hazardous substances were discovered.
EGLE officials said they were headed to the Commonwealth property late Friday to “assess the situation, determine next steps, and ensure the site is properly secured.”
The closed Electro-Plating Services property has been the site of two decades of contamination concerns, including a state-ordered shutdown in 2016. The most recent issue stems from an active investigation along I-696, where hexavalent chromium leaked from the building’s basement pit to the roadway through an underground utility line.
Sayers was sentenced to federal prison in 2019 for his role in the contamination at the property. He also was ordered to pay the emergency cleanup costs, once estimated at $2 million.
