300 electric scooters pulled from Red Cedar River off Michigan State University's campus
EAST LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Electric scooters are a popular way to get around Michigan State University's campus, but they're also winding up in large numbers in the Red Cedar River, which means heavy metals from these batteries are as well.
"We use grappling hooks, magnets, winches. We do it from bridges, from the riverside, in the water, whatever it takes," said Mike Stout, the president and founder of Michigan Waterway Stewards. "These things, when they're entangled in metal and tangled in debris and other bicycles and other stuff down there, it's tough. It's really brutal work."
The process of getting these scooters out of the river isn't easy work, and Stout estimates there have been well over 300 scooters removed from the Red Cedar River over the past year.
"Just young, exuberant, misdirected behavior. Right?" Stout said.
The problem has gotten bad enough that the city of East Lansing revoked its contract with scooter company Spin in March and adopted new regulations for Lime scooters, like requiring the scooters to be parked at least 500 feet away from certain bridges.
"This problem that we're having at Michigan State or East Lansing is not unique just to the area," Stout said. "It's in every city across the country where they're being released, and there's a waterway. So we have this problem in Ann Arbor and Detroit and Grand Rapids and Columbus and Cleveland and Portland. So we need to see a much-improved oversight."
For its part, MSU says it is working to prevent the scooters from getting in the water in the first place. In a statement, MSU said it is implementing "immediate dispatch of a team member for relocation should an e-scooter end up within 300 feet of the river."
MSU also created geo-fencing, which makes the scooters unusable depending on their location.
Stout says so far, these scooter companies have been slow to help the situation, but he is seeing progress and feels optimistic about the cleanup and prevention.
"[The scooter companies] were definitely slow to the party," Stout said. "We're collaborating with Spin, East Lansing, Michigan State. So we have come a long ways. But it was definitely a slow process."
CBS News Detroit reached out to Spin for comment but did not hear back.