Kalamazoo Oil Spill
Posted By
Paul on Aug 5, 2010 6:17am PDT
Even though this is last week's news, I thought it was important enough to post here. With the BP oil disaster still fresh in my mind, I couldn't believe the news when I first heard about this spill in Calhoun County. Apparently multiple people called in to 911 days before it was discovered stating they smelled some sort of gas. Well it took 2 days to figure out it was a broken pipeline and that is was dumping massive amounts of oil into the Kalamazoo River which empties in the Lake Michigan via Saugatauk. How can it possibly take two days to figure that out, when it is well know there is a pipeline in the general vicinity and it was also well known the pipeline has experienced problems before? There might not be shrimpers or oyster fisherman in the Kalamazoo but believe it or not it contains a great opportunity for hunters and fisherman alike. The Kalamazoo wasn't exactly pristine before the spill but there is still a good run of steel head indicating that conditions were slowly improving. It will be interesting to see what develops in a legal sense regarding property owners along the river and any economic damage they have sustained. Potential lawsuits are also foreseeable for any hunters or fisherman and others who utilized the Kalamazoo River for income and will now experience economic damages. Who says the oil will be contained? It could make it all the way to Lake Michigan and that would be a total disaster, considering Lake Michigan is such a great resource and source of income for the State Of Michigan. I will try to make a follow up blog next week regarding this spill.