Electric scooters still being pulled out of the Red Cedar River in East Lansing

• In March, the East Lansing City Council voted to revoke a license to operate for scooter company Spin, after several city ordinances were violated and hundreds of scooters ended up in the Red Cedar River.
• Now five months later, scooters are still being pulled from the river.
• Video shows magnet fishers working to help pull the scooters out of the river and thoughts from local waterway advocates.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

Scooters are still being pulled from the water here at the Red Cedar River, now five months after the East Lansing City Council revoked a scooter company's license to operate due to multiple ordinance violations, and issues with scooters ending up here in the water.

"Literally what we do is we toss out magnets and we're cleaning out the waterways," Cal Lowing said.

Cal Lowing has been magnet fishing across the state for seven years. He's pulled quite a range of items out of the water. From shopping carts to microwaves, and even...

"I've pulled out an ammo can full of .223 and .308," Lowing said.

However, a common item in Red Cedar is electric scooters.

"Out of Bogue Street alone, we pulled out 100 and I think 35," he said.

Colin Jankowski

On Wednesday, Lowing added five more to his total near the bridge on Hagadorn Road. Mike Stout, the Founder and President of Michigan Waterways Stewards, says there are a number of risks that come with the scooters and other objects remaining in the river.

"It's the personal safety of someone maybe navigating, whether it be someone on the river or in the river, wading," Stout said. "Then there's the hazard of lithium-ion batteries being in the river. The toxicity, and any amount is not good for the environment, let alone hundreds."

Mike tells me the Waterways Stuards and volunteers like Lowing have done their best to remove the scooters themselves, but the work must continue with urgency to get the remainder of the scooters out of the water as soon as possible.

"We know it's a problem," Stout said. "So we need to get past the nuance of how safe or how unsafe it is, but simply take care of it and mitigate this problem moving forward."

Back on Hagadorn, Lowing agrees and says he's concerned about what could happen if the batteries sit for too long.

"You look at lithium, it reacts with water," he said. "It'll actually ignite. And so once these batteries start decaying in the water, in 20 years, 30 years, what's going to happen?"

Once they have been pulled from the water, Lowing says he calls the companies to have them pick up the scooters.

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