Marshall citizens gather to listen to government update on oil spill response

MARSHALL — An estimated 500 people gathered at the Marshall High School gymnasium Monday night for the first public briefing by government officials involved in the clean up of over one million gallons of crude oil which leaked into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River a week ago.

Government officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, Calhoun County Health Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Transportation Safety Board, The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation all waited quietly under banners welcoming the crowd to the home of the Redhawks.

Enbridge leaders sat in the bleachers high up and behind the crowd and watched the proceedings. Company officials say they were not asked to participate in the community briefing. Last Wednesday the EPA formally took charge of the spill response, usurping Enbridge’s lead role in cleaning up what has been called the worst environmental disaster in Michigan history.

The vast majority of information presented at the event was information already presented by officials in daily press briefings.

Susan Hedman, Regional Director for the EPA’s Region 5, showed a series of slides, including the first public images of the ruptured pipeline. She concluded by putting up an image of Ceresco Dam taken before the oil spill.

“I am here to commit to you we will continue working until your river looks like this again,” Hedman said to applause.

Following Hedman, Mark Durno the deputy onsite incident commander for EPA addressed the crowd. He recited a litany of facts he has issued over the past week. Durno explained what a boom was and what absorbent boom was, while Hedman modeled the equipment for the audience.

“The goal is to remove every drop of oil,” Durno said. “I don’t know if that’s realistic, but that’s the goal.”

Jim Rutherford the chief health officer for Calhoun County Health Department told the crowd that there may be additional evacuations. That decision will be based on air quality assessments and testing being conducted. He said to date, 40,000 air sample tests have been conducted.

A spokesman for the NTSB provided an even more detailed timeline to the crowd, disclosing for the first time that Enbridge officials in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada worked for nearly four hours to restart the blown pipeline on Monday July 26.

After the event was over, the public was invited to speak to the scientists and experts working directly on the spill in a room at the high school. While that was happening, officials from Enbridge were holding court in front of the school. They were offering cookies and light snacks to the crowd.