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Monday, February 2, 2004
St. Clair River water plants closed after spill
By Gene Schabath / The Detroit News
Comment on this storySend this story to a friendGet Home Delivery As much as 39,000 gallons of lubricating oil solvent was dumped into the St. Clair River on Sunday from an Ontario petroleum company, forcing municipal drinking water plants on the Canadian and Michigan side of the river to shut down for several hours.
More than a dozen water plants were forced to shut their intakes so contaminated water would not enter the drinking supply for thousands of people in Marysville, St. Clair, Algonac, Marine City, East China and Ira townships.
Detroit’s water system was not affected by the spill because the chemical rapidly dissolves and would dissipate before reaching Detroit, said George Ellenwood, spokesman for the system.
The spill, estimated at about 11 tanker trucks of the liquid, happened between 3-4:20 a.m. Sunday from the Imperial Oil Sarnia Refinery in Sarnia.
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is investigating and Imperial Oil could be fined if found to be negligent.
Two types of chemicals, methyl ethyl ketone and methyl isobutyl ketone, were discharged, said Janet Maaten, spokeswoman for Imperial Oil. The exact amount that entered the St. Clair River has not been determined. A malfunctioning heat exchanger sent the chemicals into a water cooler system and that discharged into the St. Clair River, Maaten said.
“It is low in toxicity,” Maaten said of the chemicals used to make lubricating oils.
“They said it is low in toxicity, but we don’t like it nonetheless,” said Dennis Stevenson, an operator at the Algonac drinking water plant.
Algonac Plant Superintendent Gary Trese said the plant was shut down for six hours, but there was enough water in the city’s reservoirs to accommodate its 15,000 customers.
The spill is the latest in a series of chemical discharges in the St. Clair River. Between 1996 and 2000, there were 700 spills in the St. Clair River and more have occurred since then, said Doug Martz, chairman of the Macomb Water Quality Board. “I’m mad as hell about this spill,” Martz said. “We’ve got to get them to stop.”
You can reach Gene Schabath at (586) 468-3614 or gschabath@....
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