Michigan Creek Mysteriously Turns 'Almost Glowing' Bright Green Color

Multiple people recently noticed a Michigan creek turned an unnatural shade of green, and now residents and officials are searching for answers.

Steven Littell first noticed the strange color Monday afternoon (December 12) while he was driving by Plaster Creek near Cesar E. Chavez Avenue with his significant other.

“My significant other and I were driving by, and she said, ‘Look at the creek.’ I stopped and it was fluorescent green. It was like almost glowing. So I got out and got a couple shots,” Littell told WOOD-TV. “Came back and checked on it for the next hour or so — it ran green for pretty close to an hour.... It worried me. I thought somebody was dumping something that shouldn’t have been dumped in there. It didn’t look right. This goes right to the Grand, right to Lake Michigan, so it worried me.”

The city of Grand Rapids went to check it out Monday after receiving the complaint, but when workers got there, they said the water wasn't green anymore. WOOD-TV also went to the creek on Tuesday, but did not see the green hue.

“The color appears to have been from a dye test, likely performed near where the color was observed, and that material dissipates quickly,” Jeff Johnston, a spokesperson with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, said. The Grand Rapids wastewater/stormwater maintenance superintendent agreed that it looked like the green dye used to determine where water is flowing. However, the city clarified it wasn't doing any tests Monday.