EPA investigates unknown blue-green substance that spilled into Warren's Bear Creek

Warren — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency workers on Friday worked to clean up a spill in a Warren creek after a pollutant linked to a water line break at a nearby electroplating shop turned the body of water bright blue.

The pollution entered Bear Creek through storm drains connected to an unoccupied industrial building at 24657 Mound Road, the EPA said. Investigators are awaiting results of sampling to determine what pollutant flowed into the creek. 

Bear Creek intersects with the Red Run Drain, which flows into the Clinton River and into Lake St. Clair.

In an update on its website Friday evening, the EPA said efforts to clean 800 feet of the impacted storm sewer along Mound Road were underway in the sewer area near the plating shop to ensure no debris from the business entered the cleaned sewer line.

"The company's contractor installed equipment, also known as pom-poms, into the creek to help knock down agitated sediment in Bear Creek," the EPA said. "The company will also begin foam recovery in the creek."

Warren Mayor Lori Stone said Friday the city's drinking water remains safe to consume.

"I want to reiterate that our drinking water is safe and we are taking every measure to resolve this," Stone said.

Warren city officials said late Friday that water to a broken pipe has been shut off and there is no ongoing discharge into the storm drain.

"Residents are advised to stay away from the Bear Creek basin area and not let children or pets near the creek as cleanup efforts continue," city officials said in a statement.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said the spill has been contained, and no more contamination is entering storm drains.

The spill was reported on Wednesday by a construction worker replacing a culvert beneath Mound Road near 11 Mile Road.

"We quickly notified city officials and county and state agencies — including the governor's office — to ensure rapid response and a full investigation," Miller said Friday. "Our public works team also quickly notified an environmental services contractor to place booms along the surface of the open-channel portion of the Bear Creek Drain."

Booms are floating barriers that collect various contaminants in a body of water, but Miller said that water soluble chemicals can pass through them. She believes the unknown substance is water soluble and continued to flow down the drain, but some foam on the surface was blocked by the booms. She said General Motors also keeps booms in the Bear Creek Drain on its Tech Center property.

Talking to reporters on Friday in the spot where the drain meets Chicago Road, Miller said the drain's water no longer has the bright color it had Thursday.

"Now you don't really see anything," she said. "It went quick. It went really quick, and if you keep going down the stream here, you don't see any color anymore."

Miller said the county suspects a water main broke in the Mound Road industrial building on Jan. 24. There was a spike in the building's water use that day, she said.

In a Friday morning update, the EPA said a water line inside the Fini-Finish Metal Finishing electroplating shop broke Wednesday and caused nearly 580,000 gallons of water to flood the shop.

There was a "significant buildup of material on the floor" of the building, including small buckets and drums of material, according to Macomb County.

Electroplating waste and contaminated debris flowed through the shop and into storm sewers that flow into Bear Creek, the EPA said.

EPA officials arrived early Thursday and began collecting samples of waste at the shop and samples of surface water and sediment in the creek to determine if the material contains hazardous substances, the agency said.

"Cleanup efforts are currently underway to jet the storm sewers using vacuum trucks," EPA officials said.

The building owner purchased the facility last fall. The owner hired a contractor Thursday and is working with the EPA to clean the building's interior, the county said.

Warren city officials say they are working with the county, state and federal responders.

"While the public is being advised to stay away from the contamination in Bear Creek, pending testing results, we want to assure the public that their drinking water is safe," Stone said at a news briefing Thursday.

Sierra Club Michigan said "flagrant negligence" led to the spill and said the pollution is emblematic of why the Michigan legislature should pass a strengthened polluter pay law that would require companies to take more responsibility for remediating pollution.

“The lack of oversight of the storage of this toxic material, the fact that we EPA is not able to quickly and easily identify it, the fact that our tax dollars are going to a federal emergency response because of the negligence of the former owner of this facility are all infuriating examples of why we must act immediately on strong polluter pay laws,” said Christy McGillivray, Sierra Club Michigan’s legislative and political director. “It is unacceptable for Michiganders to be forced to keep subsidizing bad polluter behavior with the health of our Great Lakes, our own health, and our own tax dollars.”

jaimery@detroitnews.com