Agencies search for source of newly discovered Clinton River pollution

Environmental agencies are searching for the source of pollution that has created two contaminated hot spots in the lower Clinton River, hindered a long-ranging environmental cleanup effort and prompted concerns about public exposure to the contaminants.

Samples taken in 2017 and 2019 from two sites in the lower Clinton River in Mount Clemens showed high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, man-made organic chemicals known as PCBs that were banned from production in 1979, in the sediment. State and federal environmental workers are still seeking the source of the contamination, which they have not widely publicized because it is loaded in the sediment and they say is not likely to come into contact with people.

The PCB hot spots are in a horseshoe-shaped curve of the river south of North