NEW:
Michigan environmental officials say drastic steps may be needed to clean-up chemicals that produced a green ooze in portions of Macomb County.
A potentially cancer-causing chemical oozed onto I-696 just before Christmas Day.
Officials have been cleaning up the ooze and testing groundwater for possible contamination.
But they say the chemical cannot be completely cleared unless the former Electro Plating Services building where it came from is demolished.
The owner of the building had dumped the chemicals into a five-foot-deep pit.
Madison Heights officials sued the owner to force him to demolish buildings on the site but the owner is preparing to report to prison for having illegally stored hazardous waste.
State and federal environmental officials say their agencies are not in a position to do any demolitions.
ORIGINAL POST:
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — 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 from a closed-down electroplating shop.