A2: Environmental Cleanup

July 31, 2012 at 1 pm

A Michigan Radio report looks at cleanup efforts of the MichCon site along the Huron River in Ann Arbor, where manufactured gas was made in the late 1800s and early 1900s by burning coal. The report quotes Kevin Lund, a senior geologist with the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality’s remediation division, regarding contamination in the river bed: “We were just collecting samples along the way and were finding exactly this all the way through here. And one of the locations that we dug, a hole in the bank, it filled with oil.”

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Crews raise sunken boat

July 31, 2012

The Arthur J was finally floated from the bottom of Lake Huron about 3 a.m. Monday after crews worked throughout the night to get it pumped full of air. The dredge leaked an estimated 625 gallons of diesel fuel into Lake Huron. Absorbent booms were placed around the site and dragged out of the lake today.

“Safety of the salvage crews, divers and environmental responders has been paramount throughout the incident,” Cmdr. Gary Koehler, incident commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a statement. “Although challenged by adverse weather conditions and sea state throughout the week, everything came together today to execute a safe, technical and organized salvage operation. The professionalism and cooperation from all parties involved was truly impressive and instrumental to eliminating any further threat to this pristine international waterway.”

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Enbridge, agencies to test oil spill readiness

August 1, 2012

BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - An oil pipeline company and emergency agencies will test their readiness to deal with potential spills in the Bay City area.
 
The exercise Wednesday will focus on a simulated failure of an Enbridge Inc. oil pipeline that crosses the Saginaw River.
 
Officials say the only equipment or personnel actually deployed to the scene will be boom material, which helps contain spilled oil. Enbridge and the Coast Guard were placing boom in the river before the event.
 
Participating agencies will include local fire and police departments, Bay County's emergency management agency, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard.
 
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Report: Companies involved in Gulf spill didn't focus on major accident risks

July 25, 2012

(CNN) -- Two of the main companies involved in the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill were more focused on personal injury risks than the potential for a major accident, a federal agency said in a report released Tuesday.
 
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency entrusted with investigating serious chemical accidents, released findings from their months-long analysis Tuesday at a public hearing in Houston.
 
The CSB said two of the main companies involved, BP and Transocean, as well as U.S. regulators, focused too heavily on personal injury issues such as dropping objects, slips, trips and falls instead of on overarching considerations of importance, such as the potential of losing control of an oil well or drilling using a complicated rig.
 
The disaster began on April 20, 2010, when an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 people and caused a three-month-long oil spill, sending nearly 5 million barrels of crude spewing into the Gulf.
 
"A number of past CSB investigations have found companies focusing on personal injury rates while virtually overlooking looming process safety issues -- like the effectiveness of barriers against hazardous releases, automatic shutoff system failures, activation of pressure relief devices, and loss of containment of liquids and gases," CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso said.

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