The Other Oil Spill

Over at AlterNet, I have an article about the oil spill in Michigan that has sent about 900,000 gallons of oil pouring into the Kalamazoo River. It's an absolute disaster. While cleanup crews hope to contain the water before it reaches Lake Michigan, which is 60 miles downstream from the spill's site, the oil was already halfway to the second largest Great Lake by yesterday afternoon.

I think this incident is notable in part because it's not the result of direct drilling -- this was a large pipe that simply carried oil to refineries throughout the U.S. and Canada. And Enbridge, the Canadian company who owns the pipe and has been trying to get permission to build another huge pipe through pristine waters between British Columbia and just south of Alaska, is in quite a spot: either this spill was preventable, in which case the prove themselves to be untrustworthy and irresponsible, or the spill was not preventable, in which case they reveal that yes, this kind of debacle could happen again and there is nothing they can do about it.

Bonus: In the piece, I talk to Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of  American Salvage (the National Book Award finalist that I adored), who lives near the site of the spill and has been doing her share of exploring into what happened and what's being done about it.

Comments

[Andy seiler]

Wow Anna thanks for bringing this to our attention. One small point, Lake Huron is actually the second largest. The Georgian Bay itself is larger than the whole of Lake Erie. Reference: The Living Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis.

[Anna Clark]

Thanks Andy! At your cue, I looked up the lake sizes, and it appears that both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron can claim to be the second largest -- depending on what metric we use. Lake Huron has a surface area of 23,010 sq mi, compared to L. Michigan's 22,400 sq mi. But in terms of water volume, L. Michigan has 1,180 cu mi, compared to L. Huron's 849 cu mi. Fun! Good to learn --- thanks for the tip.

[Michigan Criminal Law]

I drove by the Spill in Kalamazoo a week after it happened and it was quite stunning. I have fished this river many times and it will never be the same. The run/bend that I viewed was black and the surrounding riverbed was also tarnished. I heard statistics saying that only 168 fish died from the spill. No WAY! I truly don't believe and its not just the fish that died anyway. What about fish that were spawning and helping the population grow? What about the habitat that will no longer sustain spawning or life for that matter? Something needs to be done so the oil companies don't ruin our most important resources.