Clean-up underway after river contamination
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Contamination of the Grand River brought clean-up crews to Lansing on Wednesday. The day before officials said they found out a sealant applied to railroad ties was the cause of the pollution.
They told 6 News creosote was the chemical dripping into the river and it can contain petroleum and carcinogens. The company, CN, is in charge of the cleanup since they caused the pollution. Efforts have been underway ever since the problem was identified.
Hugh McDiarmid is the communications manager for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and he says there are worse things that could have happened.
“The good news is it’s not a leaking pipeline and it’s not an ongoing issue. The bad news is we don’t want creosote or oil-derived products in the river obviously,” McDiarmid said.
Officials said Creosote is used as a sealant to keep wood from rotting. But it’s not meant to drip in the river.
“It turns out the railroad company had applied creosote which is an oil-based preservative to the railroad ties that go across the river there. And that was over-applied apparently,” McDiarmid said. “And the super warm weather yesterday exacerbated that. And it was dripping and drizzling into the river which of course isn’t a good thing.”
NCFS_445 Creosote Coal TarDownload
CN is the company that owns the railroad bridge where the creosote was applied. it confirmed that both Tuesday night and Wednesday, clean-up efforts were in full swing with a boom. William Engelter with Lansing Emergency Management explained what a boom is.
“It floats on top of the water and as contaminants come by it gets hung up in it. And once it’s all caught and contained that sack or boom can be pulled away and disposed of properly,” Engelter said.
On both the city and state level, officials said while this isn’t an ideal situation, it won’t make much of an environmental impact and people living in the area don’t have to do anything different while the company cleans up.
“I would consider this to be relatively minor. It didn’t appear like it was a very large spill,” Engelter said. “What we don’t know is how much it dripped into the river and got downstream before it was seen. But it was a relatively small area from what we can tell. So, I think the environmental impact, once it’s cleaned up should be very minimal.”
An area of the Lansing River Trail was also contaminated and has been closed off for future clean-up efforts.
A spokeswoman for the rail company emailed a state to 6 News about 5 p.m.
CN received reports about concerns with a rail bridge near Lansing, Michigan late Tuesday afternoon. CN crews dispatched to investigate discovered new rail ties were dripping trace amounts of creosote into the river. CN deployed absorbent booms within the river as part of its containment protocols. CN environmental experts are currently working with local government officials to monitor the situation and to determine if further response is necessary. CN is also in contact with the rail tie manufacturer.
Ashley Michnowski, Senior Manager, Media Relations, CN email statement Feb. 28
Also, about 5 p.m. EGLE officials provided 6 News with the following update.
Latest update:
We don’t have an estimate for when the situation no longer requires monitoring and containment.
Hugh McDiarmid, EGLE Communications Manager, email February 28
If you ever have pollution concerns call the EGLE at 1-800-292-4706
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