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Written by Detroit Free Press
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Monday, 02 August 2010 10:34 |
A week after a pipeline ruptured and sent up to 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River, signs of the spill remain achingly visible.
Banks and shrubs are blackened in a thick gook. Rainbow ribbons cover the river's surface. And the acrid smell of oil, health officials said Sunday, still causes respiratory problems, headaches and nausea for the residents who live near the spill.
Four more people have been treated in emergency rooms, raising the total to 26, said Jim Rutherford, Calhoun County health officer.
But environmental officials and the owners of the pipe, Enbridge Energy Partners, struck a positive tone about the cleanup and its future, saying for the first time Sunday that a little more than half of the oil has been removed.
"We are seeing significant progress, but there is a lot of work ahead," said Mark Durno, the Environmental Protection Agency's deputy incident commander for the site.
More than 60,000 feet of booms, which repel water and absorb oil, snake across the river. The booms are expected to be the company's primary weapon against the leak for several weeks or even months, environmental and company officials said Sunday.
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Written by Kalamazoo Gazette
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 07:13 |
Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday took both the company responsible for the massive oil spill spreading on the Kalamazoo River — as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — to task for what she called their “wholly inadequate” response to the spill so far.
“I’m very angered,” Granholm said in a teleconference with reporters. “We need for the responsible party (Enbridge Inc.) and the EPA to step up. The situation is very serious.”
But U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said late Wednesday that the cleanup effort appeared to be going well.
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Written by New York Times
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 07:10 |
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm expressed growing worry on Wednesday that an oil spill, believed to be among the largest ever in the Midwest, might reach Lake Michigan if efforts to contain the oil were not strengthened.
Dave Jenkins helped clean a muskrat and other animals.
“It would be a tragedy of historic proportions if this reached Lake Michigan,” Ms. Granholm said.
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Written by Associated Press
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 16:11 |
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A company operating a pipeline that dumped more than 800,000 gallons
of oil into a southern Michigan river said Wednesday that it is doubling
its workforce on the containment and cleanup effort. Officials
with Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge Inc. made the announcement during
an update on the spill, which coated birds and fish as it poured into a
creek and flowed into the Kalamazoo River, one of the state's major
waterways. |
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Written by Associated Press
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Wednesday, 21 April 2010 16:10 |
A sportsmen's vote to eliminate most lead fishing tackle in Wisconsin has won praise from environmentalists across the nation, but faces an uncertain future.
On Monday, participants at the Department of Natural Resources statewide spring fish and game hearings approved phasing out lead fishing tackle less than one inch in length and one ounce in weight. The decision came on a 1,980 to 1,818 vote.
"I think it's fantastic," said Dr. Mark Pokras, a veterinarian with the Wildlife Clinic and Center for Conservation Medicine at Tufts University in Massachusetts. "What a great step for Wisconsin."
The question, which was included in the Conservation Congress portion of the hearing, won in Langlade County, 30-14, but was rejected in the majority of the state's 72 counties. Thirty-three counties were in favor, 37 opposed, and two were tied. Oneida County rejected the ban, 55-56.
That outcome makes it uncertain whether the proposal will be forwarded to the State Natural Resources Board, the next step before any ban would be put into place. The full body of the Conservation Congress may choose to uphold, table, or reject the public opinion when it meets in May.
"The people of Wisconsin have spoken fairly clearly," said Stacy Craig, environmental education coordinator for LoonWatch at Northland College in Ashland. "They are concerned about this issue and it should be forwarded to the Natural Resources Board. The time has come, the people have spoken."
Roger Sabota, who represents Lincoln, Marathon, Oneida, Taylor and Vilas counties on the Conservation Congress Executive Council, said the issue will stir a lively discussion.
"It's going to be a controversial thing for a while," he said. "I can't really predict how it will turn out."
The Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of lead in paint and other products in the mid-1970s due to its documented detrimental effects on people, especially young children.
Wildlife officials say those harmful effects are only compounded in waterfowl such as bald eagles, loons and swans.
"It's amazing to me that lead has been phased out of every other aspect of our lives and recognized as a deadly toxin, but we as a society continue to expose hunters and fishermen and their families to it," Marge Gibson, who operates Antigo's Raptor Education Group Inc., a wildlife rehabilitation facility, said. "A piece of lead the size of a grain of sand can poison a child."
In Massachusetts, Pokras said he sees two to three cases a week of lead poisoning in waterfowl.
"The number one cause of mortality in loons is lead poisoning," he said. "One split-shot will kill a loon."
The loons ingest the lead through the fish they consume by picking up sinkers on the lake bottom. Once inside the bird's intestine, the lead quickly does fatal damage to the bird's neurological and digestive system.
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