By Brianna M. Lane Thanks to a spongy M&M-like technology, contaminated soil in the Detroit River downstream of the MacArthur Bridge has been contained. Powdered activated carbon was used to absorb the contaminated soil in the $3.6 million Detroit RiverWalk project that finished in December. “Activated carbon is a pure form [of carbon] that’s used to absorb contaminants,” said John Collins, the general manager for AquaBlok, the Ohio contamination remediation company that created the carbon under the brand name of AquaGate +PAC. The project was a partnership between the EPA and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. The contaminated sediment was within the Detroit River Area of Concern, one of the binational toxic hotspots that federal agencies have identified on the Great Lakes.