State: Oil flowing over
Morrow Dam

Granholm says spill containment efforts still
lacking

The Enquirer • July 28, 2010

A Michigan State Police emergency management
official said this evening that the viscous flow of oil
has breached the Morrow Dam and is bearing down
on a federally designated pollution zone on the
Kalamazoo River, potentially adding to the cost of
the disaster’s cleanup.

Tom Sands, the deputy state director of emergency
management and homeland security for the
Michigan State Police, said he saw a light sheen of
oil past the Morrow Dam near Galesburg during a
flyover this afternoon.

That would mean that the oil is closer to a
Superfund site, an Environmental Protection Agency
designation for heavily polluted areas. And Gov.
Jennifer Granholm, who spoke to reporters tonight
along with Sands, said the presence of oil at a
Superfund site “completely explodes the amount of
money needed to address� the spill.

Terri Larson, Enbridge public affairs manager,
however, maintained at about 7 p.m. tonight that the
oil had not reached past Fort Custer Recreation Area
near Augusta.

The leak occurred when an Enbridge Inc. pipeline
malfunctioned either late Sunday or early Monday
on the border of Marshall and Fredonia townships.
The oil spilled into Talmadge Creek, which carried it
to the Kalamazoo River, where it headed west toward
Kalamazoo County.

Granholm said Enbridge’s “wholly inadequate�
response to the spill had prompted authorities to
call in the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has
assessed the spill by air and will send a team to
work with the EPA to assist in the cleanup, Sands
said.