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A Pipeline Runs Through It: The Kalamazoo River, failing infrastructure, the Great Lakes and…
By Henry Henderson | Natural Resources Defense Coucil
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Read this blog post on the originating site
We people are a forgetful bunch. We need reminders. Out of sight; out of mind. It’s why we pay attention to birthdays and anniversaries. We sometimes need a little calendar jolt to remind us of what is important. And the half-anniversary of the Kalamazoo River Oil Spill this week should remind us that, despite some very clear reminders, we have done precious little to fix our reliance on oil and the ever-more problematic system that delivers it to us.
Six months ago, while all eyes were on the mess in the Gulf of Mexico, we in the Midwest were surprised by our own big oil spill saga when an aging, faulty pipeline carrying heavy crude from the Canadian tar sands oil rush, burst open and spilled nearly a million gallons of its muck into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. As some of the oil rushed downriver from the spill site near Marshall towards Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes region held its collective breath. The idea that the irreplaceable fresh water at the center of our region, the drinking water source for millions, would be fouled from an oil spill was simply appalling and previously unimaginable.
Thankfully, the spill did not reach the Great Lakes. Instead, the oil was confined within the Kalamazoo, fouling the banks of the river and the vexing the adjacent river communities. But, around the region we wonder what will come next from the pipeline systems snaking through every state in the area, under fields, roads and communities. It is worth noting that a few weeks after the Kalamazoo spill, the same pipeline system again failed, belching oil into roads and a waterway in Chicago’s suburbs.
Keep reading this blog entry on the NRDC website…
Tagged with: pipeline, kalamazoo river
