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Cleanup of toxic pollution from River Raisin nearly finished

Posted at 5:24 AM, Sep 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-07 17:50:50-04

State and federal officials say cleanup is nearly finished on a stretch of River Raisin in southeastern Michigan that was one of the Great Lakes region's most heavily contaminated sites.

Cameron Davis of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says work to restore the health of the 2.6-mile river section will be completed within the next few weeks.

The river was tainted by factories, municipal wastewater, landfills and farms. The primary forms of pollution were PCBs and heavy metals.

After the cleanup, the area will be monitored for several years to make sure its environmental problems are fixed. If so, state officials will ask to have the site dropped from a list of Great Lakes toxic spots compiled by the U.S. and Canada under a cleanup program.