Ceresco Dam
Just a quick update on the cleanup efforts along the Kalamazoo River: During my southern getaway jaunt last week, I stopped at a few of the spots I shot last July to see how things were going. Happy to report they have done a good job at removing the visible oil that was up on the banks and on plant life, the water looks cleaner (but still has a no-contact advisory until next spring) and the fumes are definitely gone, of course. My thoughts were they would have to strip plants completely, but at both Helmer Rd. in Battle Creek and the 11 Mile bridge near Ceresco, everything was pretty much intact, and what wasn't will probably grow-in just fine next spring. It's looking good.
My last stop was Ceresco Dam pictured above - that area still is seeing a lot of work, but it's so much better than it was. Chatted with a few of the guys as they were discussing how the would attack some of the pockets that remain; as you can see, they still have booms up and sections roped off as they get into the sediments in the river and other ground area around the bottom of the dam. Very nice guys, very gung-ho about the work, "we want to leave it looking better than it was", as they talked about maybe doing a little landscaping while they were at it. I left thinking we were in good hands - the boots on the ground want to get the job done right.
The EPA/MDNRE held a meeting Thursday night to report on progress. The initial phase of the cleanup ended last week, clocking in at over two months after the original accident, and now we are into the long term, residual cleaning and monitoring of the river and groundwater. If anyone ever had a question on how toxic this stuff really is - that will go on for the next five years. Or longer.
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, (Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment Director Rebecca) 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.
Probably want to stick with bottled water for now; apparently Enbridge can be slow about posting testing results and processing claims (no surprise there). You can hunt in the area still, but officials think that any deer that had been hanging around have probably been spooked by all the activity and might be hard to find. And since you can't eat the liver or play in the water anyway, maybe it's best to head to other spots.
Line 6B is up and running again at 20% reduced pressure - scary thought when there hasn't been any updates on repairing the dozens of identified problems along the entire line. Hope our officials stay on them to take care of it before we have to do this again somewhere else in the state.
And for the political angle (cause everything is all about the political angle right now), Congressman Mark Schauer, after all his diligent work, stands in stark contrast to the cutthroat politics going on in Louisiana over the BP Gulf oil spill according to the NY Times. So far, he hasn't used this in his campaign, although apparently during a debate Tim Walberg tried to make hay out of... stopping the flow of oil? A quick clean-up? Reporting times? Something, not quite sure what Tim was getting at with his rant there. Did he not want Enbridge to respond to this disaster as quickly and effectively as they possibly could? Unknown. As far as Schauer goes:
Asked why Schauer would choose to downplay the pipeline issue during his race, campaign spokesman Zack Pohl said via e-mail: "For Mark, this was never a political issue -- it was always about protecting the communities he represents and holding Enbridge fully accountable for its actions."
What would Walberg have done? Also unknown - Tim Walberg would not return a request for his stance on pipeline safety. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know.
Perhaps he would like some nice deer liver...