Ford Motor Company is conducting tests at one of its Detroit-area facilities after finding vinyl chloride in groundwater outside the plant.
The Detroit News reports Wednesday that samples with the chemical were found last summer at least seven feet below ground on the east side of Ford's Livonia Transmission Plant.
The Dearborn-based automaker tells the newspaper that it poses no health risk to people living in the area and that the plant gets its drinking water from the city of Detroit's system.
Plant manager Robert Groden said in a letter to area residents that the vinyl chloride is "from past, historic manufacturing processes."
The newspaper reports that the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists vinyl chloride as known to cause cancers in humans.
