State health officials have lifted all of the contact restrictions on parts of the Huron River. This is after numerous water samples in the river show no signs of hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, released by Wixom-basedTribar Manufacturing.
The Huron River is safe to swim and boat in and the area’s drinking water is not under threat. Those are the conclusions of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the MDHHS, 146 water samples were taken over 42 miles of the Huron River following last month’s chemical spill. Hexavalent chromium was found in just three samples.
Kory Groetsch from the MDHHS says those three samples were all well below the level of being a threat to human or aquatic life. So, the safeguards in place did their job.
“I think that’s the good news story out of this, is the protections in place, including the wastewater treatment plant, and some of the upstream protections even from there, operated well.”
Testing will be done three times a week at multiple locations upstream of the Ann Arbor intake in Barton Pond.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU todayto keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Contact WEMU News at734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org