Battle Creek Oil Spill

[roughshot]

Just finished reading thre Free Press article on the spill. What's the update? Of course all the FP is reporting is that the cleanup is going well and that Enbridge knew of this spill on Sunday.

[Bellyup]

Still a lot of oiled up birds. They just set up a new shelter over by Denney's off exit 110 from I94. Shoveled in the pea gravel this morning. new building will be built shortly. I still have not gotten a call to help out. Got an email on the shed from the set up guy, but he sent it last night around 9:00 PM and it said it needed 20 folks to help spread the gravel today at 7:00 AM. it was a little late notice when i saw the email this morning. I checked the google spreadsheet list, and they already had the 20 volunteers.

The smell by my shop is getting better, still BAD. If the breez quits.. you quit. The Enbridge trucks are parked there trying to clean up the river. I still think they are not doing that great of a job, I still see slicks. And the high water mark in the river... all the trees on the bank are soaked in oil. I dunno how they will ever get this cleaned up right. My sister lives in the house near my shop, they have paid for her and her family to have a hotel the last couple nights, so that is good. Gave her a hard time for Sunday night though, they sound like they only wanted to pay for one night.

I did see some boats this morning forming a line at a hotel, so they must be preparing to launch and attack the oil somehow.

All I can say is, things have not changed much, still stinks, there is still a slick on the river, the trees are covered, and there is still beavers, otters, muskrats, ducks and geese getting covered in oil. A nice beaver washed up on the bank yesterday.

[Benzie Rover]

I feel for you guys down there... this is a debacle of the highest magnitude for Michigan sportsman... I grew up in Midland, and even so, we never had it quite this bad (or maybe we did, but it was just un-noticed as dioxin is odorless, colorless and undetectable by humans)... none the less, this is a bad scene on the kzoo... really bad...

My only hope is that when we finally elect a competant Governor this fall, as we obviously have been with out one for awhile here... that we do NOT elect someone that is totally anti-regulation, but I fear that is almost certain looking at the pool of canidates... so to that end... I urge you all to keep the GOP canidates aware of how important oil and gas regulations in Michigan are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or dare I say...with the aging gas/oil pipeline infrastructure here and the ever constat incentive to make do with what you got and not spend $ on costly upgrades just for 'pesky tree-hugger regulations'... this sort of debacle will become all too common for us all.

just my $.02

[Bellyup]

I used to want to go goose and duck hunting in Alberta CA.... now I have second thoughts. The company that owns the old pipeline is based in Alberta, and that is where the oil ends up. Fruck em.

OLD pipelines... there should be regulations that demands an underground pipeline is to be completely replaced ecery 20 years. Why chance a spill ? And the penalty for not following the law should be your dam business license. The stupid oil companies already make billions, so whats a few billion to clean up........ all it is to them is an off year, EPS will be downgraded, and they will siomply make up for it next year.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but there is not anything local politicians can do, good or bad.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by Bellyup

I used to want to go goose and duck hunting in Alberta CA.... now I have second thoughts. The company that owns the old pipeline is based in Alberta, and that is where the oil ends up. Fruck em.

OLD pipelines... there should be regulations that demands an underground pipeline is to be completely replaced ecery 20 years. Why chance a spill ? And the penalty for not following the law should be your dam business license. The stupid oil companies already make billions, so whats a few billion to clean up........ all it is to them is an off year, EPS will be downgraded, and they will siomply make up for it next year.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but there is not anything local politicians can do, good or bad.

What's the chance of shooting some pics ?

[Ontario Gunner]

Originally Posted by Bellyup

I used to want to go goose and duck hunting in Alberta CA.... now I have second thoughts. The company that owns the old pipeline is based in Alberta, and that is where the oil ends up. Fruck em.

I live in Alberta,, and I work in the oil and gas industry,, as a matter of fact,,,, tomorrow morning I will be pushing 710,000 metric tons of sand down into the ground to get the gas out that lays a couple miles beneath the surface.

That oil that flows thru that pipeline does not come to Canada,, it goes where 70% of the gas that I will extract from the ground tomorrow will go... into you, your family and neighbours home! Sure its a horrible incident,, and the company should be held accountable,, no question about it!!

But before you go and say F.. Alberta,, just remember,, you and your family rely on what this province produces.... If you want to shut it off,,, just be prepared to pay stupid amounts of money for your auto and home fuels!

Now if you want to come and pound the snot out of waterfowl,, be my guest,,, a month from now the games begin!

My rant is over!

P.S.,, you would be amazed how much coverage this is recieving in this province,, every news program has a 3-4 minute bit on iut every news cast,, and its front page of paper daily

[Cardinal]

Originally Posted by Ontario Gunner

I live in Alberta,, and I work in the oil and gas industry,, as a matter of fact,,,, tomorrow morning I will be pushing 710,000 metric tons of sand down into the ground to get the gas out that lays a couple miles beneath the surface.

That oil that flows thru that pipeline does not come to Canada,, it goes where 70% of the gas that I will extract from the ground tomorrow will go... into you, your family and neighbours home! Sure its a horrible incident,, and the company should be held accountable,, no question about it!!

But before you go and say F.. Alberta,, just remember,, you and your family rely on what this province produces.... If you want to shut it off,,, just be prepared to pay stupid amounts of money for your auto and home fuels!

Now if you want to come and pound the snot out of waterfowl,, be my guest,,, a month from now the games begin!

My rant is over!

P.S.,, you would be amazed how much coverage this is recieving in this province,, every news program has a 3-4 minute bit on iut every news cast,, and its front page of paper daily

Well said.

[Bellyup]

Well said Ontario Gunner. But when you are on the receiving end of this crap it kind of changes your tune. I lost hunting spots for most likly forever. They will never clean up the oil that is in the ground in the swamps where the river crested its banks. All the small creeks and small canals to wetlands are sure to have some oil for years to come. Enbridge tells me the smell will be around for 6 months min. Most likley for some time after that, they could be certain.

I also read in the local paper that this oil was in the pipeline heading to Alberta, where the parent company is. Was this information not correct ? i wouldn't doubt it for a second, because there is a lot of people from a lot of different companies being quoted. The press is bound to mess up once.

I heard today, the EPA release the current figure to date for clean up. $5 million. In a state that is already broke and dam near bankrupt. This is just the EPA's cost, not Enbridges costs, and the other comapnies they have contracted to help clean up.

While I agree with you to an extent, it will be some time before I can honestly say I completely apologize for my remarks. Enbridge is no longer putting up residents that reside within 200 feet of the river in hotels. They actually got lippy with my sister yesterday. She told them to send someone out and smell it for themselves. They refused. Even though they have oil booms out and trucks within 50 yards of the house.... hmmm. Yes, I am grumpy about it, and until it is over and some time has passed, I will remain grumpy about it. I can heat my house with firewood thank you very much. My best reccomendations is to leave it alone for now. Nothing good will come of that argument.

Mike L, just look online, you will see all the pics you need to. I have a hard enough time seeing all the dead and the habitat destroyed, let alone to take pics of it. Battle Creek Enquirer (local paper) has pics, WWMT Channel 3 News covers it (kalamazoo), Wood TV 8 grand Rapids is covering it, among others I am sure.

Ontario gunner, you are right, it is not fair for me to blame you directly, or the providence. But it still is to fresh to not think about it. Just realize that please.

[Mike L]

Mike L, just look online, you will see all the pics you need to. I have a hard enough time seeing all the dead and the habitat destroyed, let alone to take pics of it. Battle Creek Enquirer (local paper) has pics, WWMT Channel 3 News covers it (kalamazoo), Wood TV 8 grand Rapids is covering it, among others I am sure.

Understand where your coming from, not a problem at all........
I cannot even imagine something happening like that around here.

[Shlwego]

Enbridge is BASED in Alberta. The oil in the pipeline was headed from Indiana to Sarnia, Ontario. So yes, it WAS going non-stop to Canada, just not Alberta. One way or another it was not destined for use in Michigan. But it's certainly not the fault of the people or province of Alberta, and I'd like to believe that the reason they are concerned up there is that they KNOW with all the oil and gas industry that surrounds them that something like this could happen to them as well. I think it's too early to say how long it will take to clean this up, and there may indeed be permanent damage, but Enbridge has SAID they will see it through, and until it appears that they are walking away, I want to believe that. If they DO walk away, then they need to be hit HARD. In the meantime I don't think we can expect that this will be resolved quickly -it's gonna take some time, as unfortunate as that may be.

[Linda G.]

Is it true that they pipe it through Michigan and then to Sarnia, rather than through Ontario, because of the Canadian Shield (lots of rock) and that Ontario would not let them run the pipelines above ground??

Who in Michigan got paid for allowing this pipeline to come through? Did they allow it for free? Or did the State of Michigan make something...?

Just asking...I just did a story on the fracking/Collingwood shale situation up here by a company called Encana, and read some pretty interesting stuff while researching that on the web...

[Shlwego]

Originally Posted by Linda G.

Is it true that they pipe it through Michigan and then to Sarnia, rather than through Ontario, because of the Canadian Shield (lots of rock) and that Ontario would not let them run the pipelines above ground??

Who in Michigan got paid for allowing this pipeline to come through? Did they allow it for free? Or did the State of Michigan make something...?

Just asking...I just did a story on the fracking/Collingwood shale situation up here by a company called Encana, and read some pretty interesting stuff while researching that on the web...

Good questions, Linda. I would hope that the State is making something off of the pipeline.

I've also been reading up on fracking as a means of oil and natural gas extraction. Seems to be some pretty bad stuff going on, but not a lot of what's happening is being reported (and many people who have been impacted negatively by it have taken pretty big "settlements" that have required them to keep their mouths shut). We seem to allow an awful lot of potentially bad stuff in our quest for energy....

[Ontario Gunner]

Im a Frac'er. Ask away and ill try to answer your questions. Did a 250,000 ton job today,, and have a 1.1 million ton coming up.

[snake13]

Just want to let you guys know that we are working our asses off trying to clean up this mess. I work for a private environmental company and have been working 90-100 hr weeks for 3 weeks now. Just taking my first day off since the spill and thought id catch up on what everyone has been saying about it. I have been working out the wildlife rehab center that they set up in Marshall, catching oiled animals, scouting swampland and setting up wildlife deterrents. If you live on the river between Marshall and BC I'm sure ive walked by your property or talked to you. Ive hiked most of the river in this area and from what ive seen, there has been a drastic improvement in the past week. There are numerous crews out cutting and bagging all the impacted vegitation along the shoreline and spillover areas.

I really hope it gets cleaned up before hunting season for you guys, cause ive seen some monster bucks down there. Ill be heading back down in the morning for another couple weeks so maybe ill run into some of you local guys

[Bellyup]

Thanks for comments, it helps knowing someone is there. I have not talked to you yet, but I sure hear the airboats going up and down the river non stop.

The smell is still horrible when the airboats stir it up, but I am glad they are cleaning things up.

We have been talking to Enbridge a lot so who knows. We are in the Red Zone as they describe it.

If you get around Raymond road let me know.

Dave