Massive Oil Spill Pollutes Kalamazoo River in Michigan

Enbridge Energy Partners LP, the Houston-based pipeline company, has crews working to clean up an oil spill from a pipeline in southern Michigan that spread from a creek to the Kalamazoo River, affecting birds and fish.

Photo: Massive Oil Spill Pollutes Kalamazoo River in Michigan

The leak on line 6B, part of Enbridge’s Lakehead System, was detected at about 9:30 a.m. yesterday when pressure on the line dropped, the company said.

An estimated 19,500 barrels of crude oil spilled into a creek near the company’s Marshall, Michigan, pump station before valves on either side of the leak were shut down, Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel said on a conference call today, Bloomberg says.

More than three million liters of oil from a pipeline of the Canadian energy company has been spilling into the Kalamazoo River since Monday morning.

Pumping from the 30-inch pipeline, which carries about eight million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario, was shut down after it suffered a malfunction underground, the Calgary-based company said.

Ontario 's Ministry of the Environment made it clear that the major oil slick has not reached Canadian coast, according to RTTNews.