Last Thursday, Calhoun county Michigan advises evacuations from area of oil spill due to carcinogenic benzene in air quality studies.
The long-term effects of Benzene exposure is on the blood. Benzene causes harmful effects on the bone marrow and can cause a decrease in red blood cells, leading to anemia. It can also cause excessive bleeding and can affect the immune system, increasing the chance for infection. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that benzene causes cancer in humans. Long-term exposure to high levels of benzene in the air can cause leukemia, cancer of the blood-forming organs."
4 days later, the oil spill evacuees endure frustration away from homes.
There is the fear, when health department officials come knocking on your door, warning you that the Kalamazoo oil spill has produced "toxic air unfit for habitation." The harmful levels of benzene in the air can also indicate the presence of other petrochemicals. Residents in the area have experienced headaches and nausea from the smell. Some residents went to temporary shelters that were set up, but one was located as close to the river as the evacuee's home. There is also frustration of not knowing when it will be safe to return home. While the Enbridge oil company is paying for hotels for the temporary relocation, the Burgetts (shown in photo) also worry about the impact of this oil spill on their property values. Concerns of financial security also arise due to the loss of money from the time needed to relocate for which Enbridge is not even considering repaying at this time.
All of these emotions are aggravated by the knowledge that Enbridge knew of corrosion in pipeline. (photo of Canada goose covered in oil attempting to fly out of Kalamazoo River.
More than a year ago an assessment of Enbridge’s 6B Michigan pipeline revealed corrosion on the line but as recently as this month the company was still negotiating with regulators for more time to fix the problem.
Feds Warned Enbridge of Corrosion in Michigan Pipeline Weeks Before Spill. (Photo of oil covered muskrat)
Enbridge admitted that the aging pipeline had been repaired more than 100 times during the past year. Yet the ruptured pipe was not tagged as a "hot spot in Enbridge's maintenance plan" for which replacement was needed.
According to a letter from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Enbridge Energy Partners - the Houston-based subsidiary operating the 190,000 barrel per day line - informed the department earlier in July the 41-year-old pipe likely was corroded and need replacing.
Weeks later, on July 26, a section of the underground pipeline burst spewing at least 19,500 barrels of crude into a creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River, which in turn empties into Lake Michigan.
So, once again, another oil company appears a tad negligent in maintaining its infrastructure and now people, wildlife, and waterways suffer from corporate greed trumping humanity.
More photos of Kalamazoo oil spill
More news in tonight's Climate Change News Roundup
BP & Fossil Fuel News
- BP offers one-off payouts with waivers to stem Gulf oil spill lawsuits: "BP will begin its legal offensive this month to cap its liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico disaster by offering those affected one-off compensation payouts in return for them waiving the right to sue."
- BP distributors consider reverting to Amoco brand: "Some BP gas station owners in the United States want to drop the BP name and return to the Amoco brand to recover business hit by public anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster."
- New Gulf oil spill mystery: How much dispersant did BP use?: "Rep. Edward Markey says documents released by his office Saturday cast doubt on BP's assertion that it used 1.8 million gallons of the toxic and controversial oil dispersant, Corexit."
Coast Guard allows toxic chemical use on Gulf oil: "The documents show the Coast Guard approved 74 waivers over a 48-day period after the restrictions were imposed, resulting in hundreds of thousands of gallons of the chemicals to be spread on Gulf waters. Only in a small number of cases did the government scale back BP's request."
145 Gulf spill photos
- Oil-damaged wetlands may just have to wait it out.
Although thick, sprawling oil slicks have vanished from much of the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, pockets of goo still menace delicate wetlands and there is no effective way to clean them up, experts said.
The best hope for the soiled bayous, some biologists said, may be to wait for Mother Nature to do its own cleaning. In the meantime, some patches of marsh will probably die.
- Gulf of Mexico oil spill fuels controversy over BP-funded energy research at UC Berkeley.
The oil giant gave UC Berkeley a $500 million grant in 2007 to create the Energy Biosciences Institute, which works to develop new sources of plant-based fuel. The 10-year deal, believed to be the largest-ever corporate sponsorship of university research, has outraged many students and professors who worry the global oil company will exert too much influence over academic research and damage the university's reputation.
Now, as the spill devastates the Gulf Coast, some local activists and faculty members say it's time to end the partnership.
- Ecuador inks deal to protect oil field in national park.
Ecuador said Saturday it had reached a deal with the United Nations Development Program under which donor countries will compensate Quito for leaving oil reserves in a national park untouched.
- Scientists Find Evidence That Oil And Dispersant Mix Is Making Its Way Into The Foodchain.
Scientists have found signs of an oil-and-dispersant mix under the shells of tiny blue crab larvae in the Gulf of Mexico, the first clear indication that the unprecedented use of dispersants in the BP oil spill has broken up the oil into toxic droplets so tiny that they can easily enter the foodchain.
Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them "in almost all" of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. -- more than 300 miles of coastline -- said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.
- Oil-Soaked Waste Worries Gulf Coast Landfills' Neighbors.
Though workers in the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history wear protective gloves and coveralls as they labor across the Gulf Coast clearing beaches of oil, the mounds of debris they amass meet a pedestrian fate: burial in the same landfills that take in diapers, coffee grounds, burnt toast, yogurt containers, grass clippings and demolition debris.
Since the first trucks began rolling in June, nearly 40,000 tons of "oily solids" and related debris have been sent to municipal landfills from Louisiana to Florida, sparking complaints - and in one case, enough consternation that BP decided to stop dumping in a landfill.
"They tell us, 'It's not bad, it's not hazardous,'" said Christopher Malloy, who borrowed a sign from his wife's tanning salon to announce his opposition to using the Pecan Grove landfill in Mississippi's Harrison County.
"Oil in Gulf - Bad. Oil in landfill/wellwater not bad? What!," reads the sign in his front yard, less than half a mile from the landfill where 1,300 tons had been disposed before BP - facing community pressure - agreed to curtail dumping.
"What I worry about is when they come back and say, 'Ooops, we were wrong. So sorry,'" said Malloy, 39, a registered nurse who said he feared that toxic chemicals from the oil-soaked material could seep into his groundwater drinking supply. "Where does that leave us?"