-By Warner Todd Huston
Everyone is aware of the BP oil spill in the Gulf affecting all our coastal states, most especially Louisiana. But in Michigan there is an oil spill closer to home to worry residents. And surrounding states are eyeing the situation warily hoping they aren’t also affected.
Just north of the Indiana border in Battle Creek and Emmett Township, Michigan a 30-inch pipeline that carries 8 million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Indiana to Canada ruptured spilling more than 800,000 gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek.
The aforementioned creek empties into the Kalamzoo River which in turn opens up into Lake Michigan. If the oil gets into Lake Michigan it could affect Indiana and Illinois as well as Michigan water sources. But officials claim that the oil will not likely make it to the Great Lake.
The pipeline is operated by Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge Inc. and its affiliate Enbridge Energy Partners LP of Houston, Texas.
The AP notes that this area of the Kalamazoo is already a stressed waterway.
The river already faced major pollution issues. An 80-mile segment of the river and five miles of a tributary, Portage Creek, were placed on the federal Superfund list of high-priority hazardous waste sites in 1990. The Kalamazoo site also includes four landfills and several defunct paper mills.
Michigan’s Governor, Jennifer Granholm, has activated the State Emergency Operations Center to deal with the cleanup.
The company and state officials are now engaged in the clean up with elected officials demanding that the company pick up the costs of clean up efforts.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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