Yellow-green slime known to cause cancer gushes from storm drain, Michigan officials say

Mysterious yellow-green goo oozed out of a drain in Michigan Friday after a spill at a nearby business, police say.

The chemical, identified as Hexavelent Chromium, leaked from the basement of a commercial business into the ground and through a drain, emptying out on I-696, Michigan State Police wrote on Twitter.

After it emerged from the drain, police say the slime froze into a “yellow blob.”

Officials closed the right lane of the interstate for most of Friday afternoon, the Detroit Free Press reported, and police say it may be closed into Monday.

On Saturday, officials said they planned to use an excavator to “scoop up the frozen waste” for disposal.

Hexavelent Chromium is used in steel to make it harder and more resistant to corrosion, the U.S. Department of Labor says.

The chemical is known to cause cancer and affects the respiratory system, kidneys, liver, skin and eyes, the department says.

Candice Miller of Macomb County Public Works wrote on Facebook that the affected storm drain travels to Lake St. Clair.

“Pollution knows no county or city boundaries,” she wrote. “Our first duty is to protect our local water and we stand ready to assist our federal and state partners to contain this material.”

On Saturday, officials said they were working to remove the slime and clean up the area.

“We have cleaned out the sewers and the clean out drains between the facility and 696,” Jill Greenberg, of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy told WDIV. “We’re also in the process of cleaning up the basement of the facility.”

Hexavelent Chromium — or Chromium-6 — was at the center of the the 2000 biographical film “Erin Brockovich” in which a legal clerk sued a utility company after residents of a California town were poisoned by water contaminated with the chemical, according to The Guardian.

This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 10:40 AM.