NEWS

Weekend event to remember oil spill

Dillon Davis, and Safiya Merchant

People will gather Saturday to remember the day when more than 1 million gallons of tar sands oil spilled from an Enbridge Inc. pipeline into Talmadge Creek and Kalamazoo River.

“Remember the Kalamazoo” will give people the chance to hear from community members who were impacted by the 2010 spill, participate in ceremonies like a river healing walk along the Kalamazoo and attend workshops on topics such as building oil infrastructure resistance and preparing for oil spills.

A full schedule of events can be found at the “Remember the Kalamazoo” event page on Facebook.

Marshall activist Linda L. Cypret-Kilbourne was one of four people in a news media conference call Tuesday to discuss this weekend’s event as well as to condemn “dirty” fuel sources such as tar sands oil. Cypret-Kilbourne said she believes “people aren’t truly aware of the dangers” the 2010 spill created in the Kalamazoo River.

“As far as I can see, (Enbridge is) still doing a lot of cleanup,” Cypret-Kilbourne said. “Ceresco, we drive through often. They put a lot of money into that area to make it look beautiful and personally I think it’s to divert the real questions of what’s happening.

“…In the process of beautifying everything and giving money to everybody and making everybody feel good about it, they’re not telling about the dangers that are still there in that water.”

Others on the call included Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club; Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United; and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Chairman David Holtz.

The leak in 2010 was discovered in Line 6B, a 30-inch pipeline that carries 8 millions of gallons of tar sands oil each day from Indiana to Canada. In the five years since the spill, Enbridge has spent more than $1.2 billion on cleanup and settlement costs; associated costs include $30 million to restore and construct 300 acres of wetlands and $18 million spent to remove the Ceresco Dam.

Brune said the Sierra Club has lobbied for clean energy sources, believing “when you drill for oil, you spill oil.” He said the United States needs to lead by example in supporting industries such as the wind industry and solar industry as well as energy storage.

“The Enbridge spill in Kalamazoo is perhaps the best example that we can not afford tar sands crude,” Brune said. “More than $1 billion has been spent on remediation and reclamation costs and it still hasn’t been cleaned up completely.

“It’s reasonable to wonder if it ever will be cleaned up.”