2010-08-01 Kalamazoo Oil Spill
Apologies for not posting these images sooner. I did an OS upgrade over the weekend, and it took me several days to get monitor calibration working again.
I have noticed a lot of work focused on this area to the east of I-69 just before the Michigan Ave exit in Marshall. This was taken from a side road just west of I-69. This area is might be close to the location of the pipe rupture.
The crude oil pipeline isn't the only one in this area of the state. This pipeline carries gasoline, if memory serves.
The river had less oil on the surface than earlier in the week, but some oil is still visible on the river bank in the bottom of the frame.
Here is a closeup of the oil patch that is visible in the bottom of the previous picture.
Workers are skimming oil out of the river with pumper trucks. The foliage in the foreground kind of spoils this image, but it was the best we could do from the locations from which we were allowed to shoot.
I'm amazed that these turtles aren't dead. The oil can't be doing them much good. This section of the Kalamazoo is just west of I-69, so it is pretty close to the spill.
Do you see the turtles on the dead branch? If not, check out the previous image in the gallery, which is actually this same image with a heavy crop.
This officer was watching from the edge of the bridge to make sure that another photographer and I stayed outside of the boundaries he had provided. The young lady is a reporter who was apparently working with the other photographer. People were allowed to drive over the bridge, but photographers were forbidden. I know the officer was just doing his job, but the policy didn't make sense.
It looks like they have another skimming operation going upstream. I feel sorry for whomever owns that house.
