The state sent an urgent warning on Tuesday, telling people to stay out of the Huron River in Oakland and Livingston counties.
That warning was issued after a chemical spill at the Wixom Sewage Plant.
Testing is also happening at the Tribars Wixom facility after the company released several thousand gallons of liquid containing a carcinogen.
It went into the system and entered the Huron River, which is why officials are urging people to avoid a section of it.
“We won’t be coming back here for a while, at least not until we figure out what’s going on,” said Lauren Greulich.
Greulich and her girls, ages 10 and five, will have to find a new way to cool off after learning from Local 4 that officials are advising people to stay out of the Huron River from Kensington Metropark upstream to North Wixom Road in Wixom.
“We’re trying to figure out the extent and help that this release might be,” said Mark Hansell.
Read: State urges locals to avoid contact with Huron River due to contamination in 2 counties
Hansell is the special program’s chief in the environmental unit of the Oakland County Health Department.
He says the chemical causing the concern is hexavalent chromium it is a carcinogen that can result in many adverse health effects if it’s inhaled, ingested, or comes into contact with the skin.
“This release probably started as early as Saturday and had stopped by Sunday night, early Monday morning,” Hansell said.
On Monday afternoon, Tribar, the company responsible for the release, notified emergency officials of the problem.
Bruce Heavner with Heavner Canoe Rentals found out Tuesday (Aug. 2) and immediately started pulling his customers out of the water.
“We went and picked them up in a van because they didn’t want to paddle back,” said Heavner.
He’s already canceled two scout groups that had plans to earn a badge in and around the river in a few days.
“They paddle right through the affected area, so we had to cancel two scout groups for the weekend,” Heavner said.
Officials say it is at least going to be a couple of days before the samples that they collected Tuesday are made available, and that will determine what will happen next.
Officials are saying that there are no immediate concerns about drinking water but as you can imagine that is a situation that they are monitoring very closely.
