EPA announces it has spent $17 million to date on Calhoun spill

During testimony Wednesday before the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the agency had spent $17 million to date on cleanup efforts in Calhoun county.

The EPA has been authorized to expend as much as $18 million from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

In a briefing memo for the committee released publicly Tuesday night, the EPA estimated it was spending nearly $200,000 a day on the efforts in Calhoun. The effort is to clean up an estimated one million gallons of crude oil that spewed into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River with a pipeline owned by Enbridge Energy Partners ruptured in late July.

In addition to noting the expenses, Jackson acknowledged the cleanup has really just begun.

“We still have work to do and we will not leave until that work is done,” Jackson said. “We are fully aware we are just beginning to clean up the vegetation and the shorelines and remove contaminated soil. The remaining oil could still cause a sheen.”