MI Oil Disaster Heads For Lake Michigan

Oil spill now stretches 35 miles; Gov knocks firm's response

Battle Creek -- The length of the oil spill along the Kalamazoo River has more than doubled from previous estimates, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said late Wednesday.

Oil sheen has been detected on the surface of the river roughly 35 miles downstream from the site south of Marshall where the underground oil pipe is thought to have ruptured.

Jim Lynch / The Detroit News
In a conference call late Wednesday, Granholm said the sheen has been seen from the air near the dam at Lake Morrow -- an area Enbridge Energy Co. Inc. had hoped to protect. The governor harshly criticized the company.

"The situation is very serious," she said. "The company and the EPA promised us they would provide additional resources. They know the resources they have provided so far have been wholly inadequate."

Wednesday night, the EPA said it believes more than 1 million gallons of oil may have leaked into the river -- 181,000 more than the company has estimated.

Enbridge has a history of problems with the pipeline and has been cited by the federal government for numerous compliance and safety violations in the past eight years.

Should the contamination flow much farther down the Kalamazoo River, it could pose a new set of problems. Dozens of miles of the river running east from Lake Michigan are considered a Superfund site containing long-standing contamination from PCBs.

A Superfund designation means the area is part of the federal government's program to clean up uncontrolled hazardous waste. If oil reaches that section of the river, it is unclear what the environmental impact might be.

Linda Schweitzer, an assistant professor of environmental chemistry at Oakland University, said the oil could affect the buoyancy of the PCBs. Typically, PCBs will sink to the bottom of a river or stream. But the oil could allow them to float up and be dispersed again, Schweitzer said.

Moments after Granholm concluded her press briefing, Enbridge officials canceled a press conference.
Firm had many citations

Since 2002, Enbridge and its pipeline subsidiaries have been issued 29 compliance and safety citations by the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Teri Larson, Enbridge's manager of public affairs, declined to discuss the specific number of citations. "We have a strong culture of safety. We put a strict emphasis on the safety of our pipelines and the communities they run through," she said. "There will be things that happen. We have between 15,000 and 16,000 miles of pipeline. I think every pipeline operator has some sort of issue."

In 2002, the company logged another leak on the same pipeline, when a 34-inch-wide pipeline ruptured near Cohasset, Minn., sending 252,000 gallons of crude oil into a marsh.

The spill prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to issue recommendations for new federal regulations on pipe transport. Federal agencies are still drafting revisions.
End of summer recreation

Wednesday was Calhoun County's third day under the specter of the oil spill, and it forced many area residents to consider what they may have to go without for the remainder of the summer -- or possibly longer.

For Steve Sayers, a lifetime of summer recreation on the river has come to a halt. And it's particularly grating for a man who has spent his career keeping bad things from escaping into the environment. His company installs underground storage tanks at service stations, and he takes pride in his ability to put systems in place that protect groundwater from contaminants.

So watching the oil-covered waters of Kalamazoo River float by was particularly difficult for the 59-year-old Marshall resident. It's a river he has used for decades.

"To see this floating down the river I grew up on ... it's just blowing me away immensely," he said. "Two days later, I'm still not able to grasp this."

Residents along the Kalamazoo River expressed similar thoughts Wednesday as cleanup efforts just south of Battle Creek kicked into higher gear.

Enbridge said it had doubled its in-house and contracted resources to a staff of more than 300, doubled the number of booms deployed along the river to catch oil and added 10 new sites along the waterway where boats are attempting to take in contaminated materials.

The cause of the leak -- which Enbridge said released an estimated 819,000 gallons of crude oil via an underground pipe -- is unknown.

Crews began excavating the area around the ruptured pipe on Wednesday, but it could be days before a cause is known.
Response speed questioned

Enbridge officials faced questions Wednesday about how quickly they notified the necessary agencies after discovering the spill. Company officials said they were first alerted to a potential problem Monday morning when pressure readings in the pipe just south of Battle Creek changed.

They said the pipe was immediately shut down and the incident reported right away. U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D- Battle Creek, one of Enbridge's harshest critics this week, released documents Wednesday that showed the company did not report the incident to the National Response Center until 1:30 p.m., roughly two hours after the company claims it learned of the leak.

On Wednesday, Enbridgeofficials indicated they may have taken more than two hours to gather leakage data before notifying federal authorities. But the leak may have been under way long before Monday morning. Marshall Township Fire Chief Steve Riggs said residents logged complaints about the smell of oil roughly 12 hours before the company detected a problem. Investigators had been unable to locate the source of the smell Sunday night.

Enbridge president and CEO Patrick Daniel said he was aware odor complaints came in to Consumers Power, the local utility, on Sunday evening, but said they were not relayed to the oil company.

"There is an ongoing investigation on times, specifically with the time of the (Sunday 911) call out," said Durk Dunham, emergency coordinator for Calhoun County. "Due to the investigation, it's not ready to be released yet."

Many area residents were uninterested in finger-pointing Wednesday; they were preoccupied with coming to grips with what was happening to the Kalamazoo River. While many tried to think positively, others were focused on what they may have lost.

Sisters Megan and Paige Gwathney were among many who flocked to the bridges crossing the river in and around Battle Creek. Many came just to get a look at the damage. Many of the bridges had signs along the walkways notifying residents that the contaminated area is off-limits for boating, fishing and swimming this week.

"Just looking at it ... it's horrible," said 14-year-old Megan. "To think of all the wildlife that it's killing."

Most summers, the sisters go fishing along the Kalamazoo River, but both said that's unlikely now.

"This is a lot worse than I expected," said 17-year-old Paige. "Of all the places ... right here near Marshall."

Eric Crumb caught his first whiff of the oil spill while driving home in Battle Creek Tuesday night. Less than half a day later, he and his family attempted to have lunch at Historic Bridge Park, but were turned away by work crews operating a boom along the Kalamazoo River there.

Detroit News Staff Writers Catherine Jun, Tom Greenwood and AP contributed.

The Detroit News