FLINT (WWJ) - Authorities in Genesee County are scrambling to respond to a sizeable spill in the Flint River Thursday morning after several thousand gallons of an unknown black substance was discovered seeping in the water.
Authorities with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said via MLive that the spill was first reported around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning in waters near I-475.
According to Jill Greenberg, a spokeswoman for Michigan's environmental agency, the material polluting the river appears to be a dark black, oil-based material that smells like petroleum and is similar to motor oil; it is estimated the spill stretches five miles long.
Mayor Sheldon Neeley said agencies from the state and local level are at the scene and working to contain the spill by dropping booms into the water to catch the substance.
Officials said there is no threat to drinking water because "there are no drinking water intakes in the Flint River."
Flint previously used the river for drinking water in 2014 and 2015 before lead contamination caused the city to return to a regional water supplier.
“We’ve identified a potential source, but we are still investigating,” Greenberg said of the investigation to MLive.
Related
EGLE officials told MLive that it was currently unknown if the source of the spill came from inside Flint city limits.
At this time, deputy Genesee County health officer Kayleigh Blaney warned that people should avoid contact with the water and stay out of the Flint River until further notice.
Sean McBrearty, the coordinator of the Oil & Water Don’t Mix campaign to shut down Line 5, told MLive that the Flint spill should spur authorities to act.
“For the second time in one week, we have infrastructure that has been called safe and has failed, leaking oil into our waterways and we know it’s not going to be able to be fully cleaned up,” McBrearty said. “No oil spill has ever been fully cleaned up.”
A week ago, roughly 5,300 gallons of gear oil from the Algoma Steel mill contaminated waters in the St. Mary's River by Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
McBrearty said via MLive the latest spill in the Flint River is “a stark reminder of Enbridge’s nearly 70-year-old Line 5 pipeline which is a constant oil spill threat located in the worst possible location for a spill.”
Related
