MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) - The owner of an industrial building that released green goo along a Detroit-area interstate is leaving prison early because of the risk of the coronavirus.
Gary Sayers, who is in his 70s, was sentenced to a year in prison last fall for illegally storing hazardous waste at Electro-Plating Services in Madison Heights.
Sayers, who is being held at a federal prison in West Virginia, will be placed on home confinement under a U.S. Justice Department policy that’s being applied to certain older inmates during the virus pandemic, prosecutors in Detroit said.
Electro-Plating was shut down by state regulators in 2016 due to mismanagement of industrial waste, after nearly 50 years of operation.
In late December, drivers on Interstate 696 saw a brightly colored goo seeping through a concrete barrier along the shoulder. It apparently migrated through soil from Electro-Plating.
Separately, a judge on Thursday said the site can be demolished. Madison Heights City Manager Melissa Marsh said she’ll work with state and federal regulators on the next steps.
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