"Former workers at a shuttered plant in Highland Park [Mich.] are charging that the plant likely contaminated an adjacent neighborhood and possibly some urban farms in the area with a highly toxic carcinogen."

"The major hazard is hexavalent chromium -- the same substance that contaminated tiny Hinckley, Calif., in an environmental case Erin Brockovich made famous. It was used to coat bumpers at the plant.

The plant, called Chrome Craft, has been cited over the past 20 years for 39 violations of city, state and federal laws regarding its discharges into Detroit sewers, its lack of a permit to store hazardous waste, improper storage of waste and failure to train workers, according to documents obtained by the UAW under the Freedom of Information Act. The NAACP, the UAW, environmental groups and workers are asking the state's Department of Environmental Quality to investigate."

Tina Lam reports for the Detroit Free Press December 13, 2011. [2]