The Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich. today teems with kayakers paddling amid swimming turtles, buzzing dragonflies and fish that leap from the water—with few visible scars of the environmental disaster that struck the riverside community five years ago.
The 40-mile tainted stretch of river that was closed when more than 1 million gallons of heavy crude oil spilled into it has recovered better than expected, environmental officials say. But even as the river flows clear and wildlife flourish, many of the people who woke to the stench of oil flowing past their homes say their lives will never be the same.
“When your life is turned inside out by something that runs you from your home you never really get over it,” said John La Forge, who had to flee when oil backed up to his patio door.
It was in La Forge's neighborhood where an aging oil pipeline owned by Enbridge Inc. burst on July 25, 2010. By the time Enbridge shut off the flow of oil—17 hours after the rupture—the Kalamazoo ran black with oil.
The spill forced the closure of a vast section of river for nearly two years, displaced 150 families and has cost Enbridge $1.2 billion so far to clean up as the company had to take extraordinary measures to dredge the oil from the river bottom.
InsideClimate News—winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for its series "Dilbit Disaster"—revisited La Forge and other witnesses to what was the biggest inland oil spill in U.S. history.
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
