{"id":375,"date":"2011-06-06T10:12:38","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environmentalriskmanagers.com\/erm\/?p=375"},"modified":"2011-06-06T10:12:38","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T14:12:38","slug":"clean-up-continues-through-winter-as-oil-spill-damage-lingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/clean-up-continues-through-winter-as-oil-spill-damage-lingers\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean-up continues through winter as oil spill damage lingers"},"content":{"rendered":"

environmental Strategist, between the lines:<\/strong> This is a mini BP, just $500,000,000 and counting, States. I wonder which contractors and sub-contractors are being sued?<\/p>\n

Clean-up continues through winter as oil spill damage lingers<\/strong><\/p>\n

By CAROL THOMPSON
\nLANSING \u2013 Cleanup efforts are still underway more than six months after 819,000 gallons of heavy crude oil spilled into Talmadge Creek near Marshall and into the Kalamazoo River, covering wildlife and the nearby environment with sludge.<\/p>\n

Remediation efforts have slowed for the winter by the clean-up crew will continue to sample sediment and water for benzene and other harmful toxins, said Mark Durno, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deputy incident commander for the spill.<\/p>\n

Containment boom lines were removed because of freezing weather conditions but below-freezing temperatures actually help with some clean-up like oil removal because oiled soils are solidified and easier to remove, according to the EPA.<\/p>\n

Low-lying sites are also more accessible in the cold.<\/p>\n

The ruptured pipeline, operated by Houston-based Enbridge Energy Partners, carried crude oil 286 miles from Griffith, Ind. to Sarnia, Ontario.<\/p>\n

The Ceresco spill was the largest ever recorded in Michigan, according to the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE).<\/p>\n

As of mid-December, cleanup workers from Enbridge and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had collected 13,750,922 gallons of oily water, the EPA said. The company estimates that 699,000 gallons of oil will be salvaged and put back into commercial use.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the oil that could be put back in commercial use went back to the Enbridge facility,\u201d said Durno.
\nImmediate cleanup after the spill involved collecting and refining oil, decontaminating riverbanks, building a wildlife rehabilitation center that cleaned more than 2,000 animals, monitoring the environment for toxins and hiring more than 2,000 contract workers, Enbridge public information officer Kevin O\u2019Connor said.
\nIn spring when the ice begins to thaw, Enbridge will replace containment boom lines, continue monitoring for toxins and erosion, and check the river bottom for submerged oil, Durno said.<\/p>\n

Enbridge and the EPA will also develop work plans to determine when to remove any residual oil that\u2019s found and when to leave it to avoid further environmental disturbances that may harm wildlife.<\/p>\n

So far, spill cleanup has gone well, Enbridge\u2019s O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process that\u2019s been involved to get this back to where it is has been is pretty astounding,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cWe certainly had issues here and there, but by and large it\u2019s gone really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those clean-up efforts certainly don\u2019t come cheap.<\/p>\n

Durno said, \u201cThe EPA alone has spent over $20 million, which we billed to Enbridge. I can only imagine what Enbridge\u2019s costs are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s first estimate came to about $400 million before government fines and lawsuits. New estimates reached $550 million, Enbridge project director John Sobojinski said.<\/p>\n

The cause of the spill remains unknown. The National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to finish studying the pipe\u2019s rupture and interviewing Enbridge employees to get a clear picture of the events leading up to the spill this year. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is completing a long-term damage assessment to evaluate the ecological damage to the Talmadge Creek and Kalamazoo River systems.<\/p>\n

Federal and state agencies will continue to oversee Enbridge\u2019s assessment, monitoring and remediation until the environment has been restored to what it was before the spill, according to Durno of the EPA.
\nDurno anticipates that clean-up work will continue throughout the spring and summer, and possibly even longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope is that the ecosystem recovers within a couple years,\u201d Durno said. Overall, he said he\u2019s optimistic about the response to the spill, which he called nationally significant.
\nMonitoring the environment for damage will continue for at least the next several years, said DNRE public information officer Mary Detloff.<\/p>\n

The area\u2019s groundwater flows into the river, making monitoring easier, and tests have shown no groundwater contamination yet,\u201d Detloff said, but added, \u201cThere are groundwater issues we\u2019ll be monitoring for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would hope that within the next five years there\u2019s a complete recovery of the ecosystem there,\u201d she said.
\nCarol Thompson writes for Great Lakes Echo.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011, Capital News Service, Michigan State University School of Journalism. Not to be reproduced without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

environmental Strategist, between the lines: This is a mini BP, just $500,000,000 and counting, States. I wonder which contractors and sub-contractors are being sued? Clean-up continues through winter as oil spill damage lingers By CAROL THOMPSON LANSING \u2013 Cleanup efforts are still underway more than six months after 819,000 gallons of heavy crude oil spilled… Continue reading Clean-up continues through winter as oil spill damage lingers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-risk","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}