Is the Michigan oil spill sealed?: EPA is hopeful Lake Michigan can be spared
Jul 30, 04:37 AM
By Eric D. Lawrence, John Wisely, Christina Hall and Jennifer Dixon, Detroit Free Press
July 30--KALAMAZOO -- Cleanup crews said Thursday they had stopped the westward spread of an oil spill heading down the Kalamazoo River, but officials from various agencies offered conflicting accounts of how far the slick had spread and whether oil continues to leak from the source.
"We do not anticipate that Lake Michigan is at risk," Ralph Dollhopf, an Environmental Protection Agency coordinator, said Thursday.
Officials with Enbridge Energy Partners, which owns the pipeline, said they had contained the leak site along a tributary near Marshall. But oil was visible to Free Press reporters Thursday afternoon beyond a containment dike flowing down the tributary into the Kalamazoo River.
Enbridge spokeswoman Terri Larson said "no fresh oil is leaking from the leak site itself." She said any continuing flow was likely from oil that was already in the tributary, Talmadge Creek.
At the other end of the slick, containment equipment was visible in the river at the entrance to Morrow Lake near Kalamazoo, an important backstop for cleanup efforts. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and local officials said Wednesday that the oil had already reached the lake. Residents on the lake reported smelling the oil, as well.
But EPA and company officials disputed that Thursday, saying the spill had stopped short of the lake.
Environmental Protection Agency officials said Lake Michigan appears safe, as do drinking water sources for the city of Kalamazoo.
They also said Thursday that the oil had not yet reached Morrow Lake, an impoundment east of Kalamazoo. But Michigan State Police Capt. Thomas Sands, among others, disputed that, saying an aerial photograph shows a sheen on the lake. Sands acknowledged testing on the lake has not yet been performed.
Officials from Enbridge Energy Partners, which owns the pipeline, said 17 booms have been set up, and 16 more may be put in place to collect the 19,500 barrels, or 819,000 gallons, of spilled crude.
Is it stopped?
Yet although Enbridge officials say a temporary dike has stopped oil from flowing into streams, a flight over the spill area by Free Press reporters shows continued problems, including an oily sheen flowing in colorful ribbons down much of the Kalamazoo River through Battle Creek and beyond. Many of the marshy shoreline areas were marked by oily tar deposits easily visible from 1,000 feet up.
Workers could be seen maneuvering booms and absorbent materials in the river, but the oil appeared to continue almost unabated in many areas. Tanker trucks parked on bridges continued to suck out oil with hoses. In other spots, crews in airboats worked booms in the river and marshes.
At the apparent leak source, a crew used earth-moving equipment to excavate a hole in the ground surrounded by orange fencing. Nearby, oil pooled in large quantities.
While cleanup crews worked the river, some oily stretches, hundreds of yards long, were left untended. In one, oily water flowed over an apparently saturated piece of absorbent material.
West of Battle Creek, the oil sheen became less visible Thursday as the river reached Morrow Lake. Crews with booms could be seen on both the approach into the lake and at the west end of the lake, where booms were positioned in a pyramid formation.
No other cleanup activities or oil were visible west of the dam.
'Whatever it takes'
Enbridge President and CEO Patrick Daniel apologized Thursday "for the mess we have made" and said the company was willing to spend "whatever it takes" to clean up the spill.
Daniel said at a news conference that the company was not aware of the leak on Sunday night, despite 911 calls about a gas odor in the area. The company learned of it Monday, he said.
U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, a Battle Creek Democrat, proposed a bill Thursday to speed response times to pipeline disasters and more than double fines for companies slow to report them. The bill would raise fines from $100,000 to $250,000 on companies that wait more than an hour to report a leak. Repeat offenders could be fined up to $2.5 million.
The bill also calls for a public, searchable Internet database of all reportable incidents involving gas or hazardous liquid pipelines.
"We have an estimated 1 million gallons of oil on the ground, and the people of Michigan want answers," said Schauer, who serves on a House subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials. "There is no excuse for the amount of time that lapsed between when Enbridge discovered the leak and when they reported it."
He said an Enbridge executive told his committee weeks ago that "safety and protection of the public environment are our highest priorities."
About 30-50 homes have been recommended for evacuation near Marshall. County and state officials continue to monitor other areas.
There is a drinking water advisory for about 100 homes within 200 feet of the river in Calhoun County, and bottled water is available for residents.
The slick is a problem on the surface, but probably not a threat to drinking water supplies, which are drawn from aquifers 70 to 100 feet down, said Alan Steinman, director of the Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University.
Clay in the ground would make it difficult for the oil to penetrate, and the ground would filter much of the oil before it got that far down, he said.
Kalamazoo provides water to about 121,000 customers in the city and surrounding communities. It uses 98 wells to generate about 18.4 million gallons of water a day, according to the city's water quality report.
The greater long-term ecological risk may be in the wetlands along the tributaries of the river, Steinman said. "That's key habitat. The bugs are living, the fish are spawning. It's going to last a long time."
Trouble in Canada, too
Enbridge pipelines in Canada have ruptured eight times since 1994, according to the country's regulators, the National Energy Board. The largest spill occurred in 1994, when 4,000 cubic meters of oil were released in Manitoba province.
Slightly smaller spills occurred in 2001, when 3,800 cubic meters of crude was released in Alberta, and in 1999, when 3,123 cubic meters of crude was released in Saskatchewan. The company's most recent rupture was in April 2007 in Saskatchewan, when 990 cubic meters of crude was released.
The National Energy Board cited fatigue, external metal loss and improper operation for the ruptures.
The Free Press reported Thursday that U.S. regulators notified Enbridge twice this year of problems involving old pipes prone to rupturing and an inadequate system for monitoring internal corrosion.
Former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard, who serves on the board of directors of Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., the parent company, could not be reached Thursday.
The Enbridge Web site says Blanchard owns 12,332 shares of common stock in Enbridge, which would equal $591,443 on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. The site says Blanchard also owns 37,761 shares in deferred stock. He is currently chairman of the board's committee on corporate social responsibility, the site says.
Contact JOHN WISELY: 313-222-6825 or . Staff writers Todd Spangler and Brent Snavely contributed to this report.
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EDITORIAL: Midwest oil mess
Jul 30, 03:28 AM
By Chicago Tribune
July 30--This sounds awfully familiar. An oil spill catches a company flat-footed. Initial reports downplay the seriousness of the hazard.
The response starts slowly. Oil spreads, and as the scope of the damage comes into focus, the company's stock price takes a hit. Politicians cry out for more help. Wildlife gets soaked in oil. There's fear of a massive disaster.
It's not happening in the Gulf of Mexico, but in southwestern Michigan, where a pipeline leak is fouling local waterways and threatens to reach Lake Michigan.
It may not be BP revisited, but it's too close for comfort.
How did a leak that started days ago at a river 80 miles upstream spread halfway to the lake -- our lake? As of Thursday afternoon, cleanup crews said they had stopped the smelly mess short of a dam described as "a last-line of defense." A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said he no longer considers Lake Michigan "at risk."
He'd better be right. If we learned anything from the Gulf disaster, it's to trust, but verify. And in this incident, there's plenty of reason for doubts.
The spill supposedly occurred on Monday when a 30-inch pipeline carrying oil between Canada and Indiana burst near a pumping station in Marshall, Mich., run by an affiliate of Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. Oil poured into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River, which leads to the lake. The company said it learned of the spill Monday morning, and reported it as soon as regulations permitted.
But records show the report came hours after the company had confirmed the spill, and as long as 12 hours after area residents started making emergency calls about noxious fumes. Enbridge officials said they were unaware of a problem Sunday night.
Enbridge estimated that 819,000 gallons of oil had spilled, and stuck by that number publicly amid reports that it had provided a slightly higher estimate to state officials. On Wednesday, the EPA said more than a million gallons had been lost.
The cause of the spill remains undetermined, but poor maintenance is suspected. The company has a record of federal safety and compliance violations, and reportedly received at least two warnings this year about corrosion on the 40-year-old pipeline. The company said it has an active maintenance program, but no work was scheduled for the location where the leak occurred.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Enbridge sharply expanded the manpower and equipment deployed in the cleanup -- suggesting it could have responded more aggressively at the outset. You have to wonder what took so long.
Enbridge executives have apologized for making a mess, and promised to continue cleaning up until residents are satisfied, no matter the cost. Those are words, promises. We learned from BP that promises aren't enough.
The No. 1 priority: Keep that oil from reaching any closer to Lake Michigan. The many outstanding questions about the spill require trustworthy answers. Meantime, the environmental disaster unfolding so close to Chicago serves as another reminder of the price we pay for our dependence on oil, and the advantages of conservation at every possible opportunity.
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Fatal C-17 crash also disrupts railroad service
Jul 30, 03:13 AM
By Lisa Demer, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
July 30--The investigation is just beginning into what caused a Boeing C-17 to crash and burn on Elmendorf Air Force Base on Wednesday evening, killing all four crew members and damaging nearby Alaska Railroad tracks that carry passenger and freight trains.
Despite the deaths, the hugely popular Arctic Thunder air show and open house will go on this weekend, officials announced Thursday afternoon.
Military authorities haven't publicly identified the crew members -- three from the Alaska Air National Guard, one active-duty Air Force -- who were practicing for the air show when the plane went down in a wooded area a couple of miles from the end of a runway.
That should happen today, once the families have had a few hours to grieve in private, said a military spokesman.
TAKEOFF, THEN A CRASH
This appears to be the first fatal crash involving a C-17, which Boeing bills as the most advanced air cargo plane in the world.
Brig. Gen. Chuck Foster, commander of the Guard's 176th Wing, said he knew of no other. Elmendorf officials were trying to confirm that.
The four-engine jet crashed in what witnesses described as a huge ball of flame. One said it looked like a nuclear explosion.
Emergency crews worked all night Wednesday to secure the crash site and preserve evidence for the Air Force investigation, said Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander, at a briefing outside Elmendorf's Boniface Parkway gate on Thursday.
"We've got an interim safety team that's standing up, that's going to be out there to secure data, to secure information, to secure the site," McMullen said. "We've got another safety team that's going to come in ... which will start an official safety investigation to try to determine the cause of the accident."
At the briefing, McMullen and Foster provided little information about the flight itself. The Air Force says its records show that the crash happened about 6:14 p.m.
"About a minute after takeoff is when I got the call that we had a mishap," McMullen said. "I did not see it. I do not know. But it happened very quickly after takeoff, is what I do know."
More information about the crash will come after the safety team reconstructs what happened, he said.
The plane had flown earlier Wednesday with a different crew, McMullen said.
The Air Force hasn't said if the C-17's flight data recorder has been recovered or if it has any audio of the flight crew's last moments.
Boeing said it would help with the investigation if needed.
DEBRIS ON THE TRACKS
The Alaska Railroad has suspended freight traffic and is transporting passengers around the damaged tracks by bus, said Stephanie Wheeler, railroad spokeswoman.
The railroad goes through the base on the way north to Wasilla and beyond.
Railroad officials don't yet know whether the crashing plane struck the tracks directly, she said.
"We know there's debris on both sides of the track and on the track. It could have," Wheeler said. "We haven't been able to get out there and really make that determination."
The last train came through about 2:30 p.m. hauling gravel. The next one due was a passenger train from Denali National Park, which would have moved through at about 7:40 p.m., she said.
Passenger and freight trains come through every day, and frequent trains haul gravel and coal through the base, she said. The passenger trains can carry hundreds of people.
About a 200-foot stretch of both the main line and a parallel siding, used for passing, were damaged, Wheeler said. Passengers are being taken by bus between Birchwood and the historic railroad depot at Ship Creek.
The railroad needs a few hours to repair the main tracks and is coordinating with the military to get access to the area, Wheeler said. Until then, the railroad can't say when service will resume.
A VERSATILE JET
C-17 crews have embarked on a range of missions, some rendering aid, some related to war, since the aircraft arrived at Elmendorf in June 2007. The C-17s are operated jointly by Air Force and Guard squadrons, a more common practice as the military tries to improve efficiency. After Wednesday's loss, Elmendorf has seven C-17s left.
Crews from Anchorage flew supplies to Haiti after the earthquake in January. They delivered a Navy skimmer boat and boom to the Gulf of Mexico after April's disastrous oil spill. They delivered helicopters and rescuers to the Gulf during the 2008 hurricane season.
And "with mixed active-duty and Air Guard crews, they are constantly flying to both Iraq and Afghanistan, ferrying personnel, supplies and equipment," 1st Lt. John Callahan of the Air Guard said in an e-mail message Thursday.
Around the country, the C-17 is commonly featured in air shows, highlighting the aircraft's ability to take off and land in short distances.
AIR SHOW TO BE HELD
The loss of the four airmen will be honored by holding the air show as planned, McMullen said in a written statement Thursday.
"Obviously this is a huge tragedy, but at some point we are going to need to get up, and we're going to need to press on and move forward," the commander told reporters earlier in the day.
The military is also going ahead with a ceremony today -- another step in the merger of Elmendorf and adjacent Fort Richardson into what is being called Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. A new wing is being activated at the ceremony.
Military officials Thursday were offering help from counselors and chaplains to families and squadrons.
"The squadrons themselves kind of surround each other and they care for one another," Foster said.
"Absolutely. The squadrons, the wing, the base is a huge family. So we're going to lean on each other to work ourselves through that," McMullen said.
Some 218 C-17s are in service around the world, including 199 used by the U.S. Air Force and National Guard, according to Boeing.
Military officials, political leaders, and Boeing have all expressed sorrow about the four deaths. Gov. Sean Parnell ordered flags lowered to half-staff.
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Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.
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Wildfire forces evacuation of Calif. town
Jul 30, 01:40 AM
Residents were ordered to evacuate Leona Valley, a town of 2,200 north of Los Angeles, where a wildfire burned homes and other structures, fire officials said.
Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Matt Levesque said the fire, first reported at 2:22 p.m. PDT Thursday, had consumed 4,500 acres by Thursday night, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Levesque said the fire had grown to the point it was generating its own wind, complicating the job of firefighters.
There was no word how many structures had burned in the area west of Palmdale, Calif., known for growing cherries and wine grapes, the Times said.
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Arizona appeals migrant law ruling
Jul 29, 11:19 PM
By LARA MARLOWE
ARIZONA LODGED an appeal yesterday seeking to lift a judge's decision to suspend core provisions of the state's controversial immigration law SB1070.
Lawyers for Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona asked the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which has a reputation for being liberal, to lift a preliminary injunction blocking parts of the law and to expedite the briefing schedule and its ruling.
Police arrested at least 30 demonstrators who took to the streets of Phoenix yesterday to protest SB1070. When federal district court judge Susan Bolton's decision was announced on Wednesday, Latinos holding a vigil outside the Arizona state Capitol broke into cheers. Passing motorists hooted horns in a sign of support. Other motorists shouted "Go home!"
Hispanic groups had prepared for implementation of the law by teaching illegal immigrants how to behave when interrogated by police and advising parents to give power of attorney to a friend or relative so children could be cared for in the event they were arrested. Home grocery delivery services thrived as Hispanics waited at home. Thousands of Mexican immigrants fled the state, shuttering their shops, boarding up houses and selling belongings.
In her ruling, Judge Bolton said she believed the federal government will prevail in its lawsuit against SB1070. But her preliminary injunction against the law is merely a first step.
"This fight is far from over. In fact, it is just the beginning," said Governor Brewer, one of the law's architects said. "I will battle all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary."
The Supreme Court is likely to accept the case, because it pits states' rights against federal powers. Officials from nine other states have expressed support for Governor Brewer.
Judge Bolton suspended the four most controversial aspects of the law, which would have required police to check the immigration status of anyone they encountered in the course of their work whom they suspected of being an illegal alien.
The injunction stops the provision making it a state crime for foreigners not to carry identity papers. It blocks police from arresting people they believe to be eligible for deportation without a warrant and suspends the section making it a crime for illegal immigrants to seek or perform work.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, who conducts raids against Hispanics, said Judge Bolton's decision would not change his activities. William Gheen, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration, told the Washington Post: "The president of the United States and this judge just took the side of illegal immigrants against the American citizenry."
President Obama has ordered 1,200 national guardsmen to Arizona's border with Mexico. Arizona senator John McCain has asked for 3,000. "Instead of wasting taxpayer resources filing a lawsuit against Arizona and complaining that the law would be burdensome, the Obama administration should have . . . [supported] the state in its efforts to act where the federal government has failed to take responsibility," McCain said.
The Arizona law and Judge Bolton's injunction have ensured that immigration will be a major issue in the November mid-term elections. Polls show that 55 per cent of Americans support SB1070, and Democrats fear they will lose votes by appearing to be soft on illegal immigration. But analysts say President Obama stands to gain the Hispanic vote in the 2012 presidential election, which will see a higher turnout.
The New York Times called SB1070 "a spiteful crusade to force a mass exodus of illegal immigrants".
The Border Patrol collected the bodies of 422 Mexicans who perished crossing the desert into Arizona last year. Right-wing militiamen who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the border call immigrants "narco-terrorists". The leader of one heavily armed militia, a former marine called Jason Ready, was linked by the Times to the neo-Nazi National Socialist movement, which believes only non- Jewish, white heterosexuals should be US citizens.
Originally published by LARA MARLOWE in Washington.
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