Kalamazoo River Oil Spill (EPA follow-up meeting) - October 14 at Marshall, MI

from MLive dot-com -- posted article

At a meeting Thursday hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to update the 82-day old spill response, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment Director Rebecca Humphries said that by this time five years from now, it’s her agency’s goal to have the river back to the way it was prior to the spill.

That goal includes a complete ecosystem recovery of the affected areas of Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River to “look similar” to how they were prior to the July 26 spill, when more than 1 million gallons of crude oil leaked into the creek then the river from a 41-year-old Enbridge Energy Partners pipeline.
But getting the waterways to that point will be no easy task, Humphries said.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We will be monitoring for five, maybe 10 more years.”
Work on the river will continue in a limited capacity through the winter, she said, with crews removing any oil that might leach into the river from trees and riverbanks that are still contaminated with oil residue. Groundwater monitoring systems will also be placed at several locations along the affected stretch of the river.
The residue, left in certain areas because removing it would be more damaging to the environment than leaving it, is “fairly inert,” said Susan Hedman, regional administrator for EPA’s Region 5. “It’s like asphalt.”
Also, the river downstream of Morrow Lake in Comstock Township is now open for recreational activity, Hedman said. Upstream of the lake, however, is a different story.
There is a no-contact order for that section of the river, which is expected to remain in effect through next spring.  “This is a public recreational use river, (but) unfortunately, not this year,” said Mark Durno, EPA’s deputy incident commander for the spill response. “The end goal, however, is to leave you with a clean river.”

Some of the 100 or so attendees at the meeting did not share the speakers’ optimism.
AJ Hale, of Marshall, said he is frustrated with the lack of transparency regarding groundwater test results.
“Post the results,” he said. “No one knows the long-term effects of this. Give me the facts.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/10/kalamazoo_river_monitoring_exp.html