DETROIT, Mich – On Monday, oil spill concerns moved closer to home with reports of over 800,000 gallons of oil leaking into the Kalamazoo River.
Four days prior, an explosion caused oil to gush into the Yellow Sea near China's eastern coast.
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All this came just eight days after a cap halted the millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.
The full impact of each spill cannot yet be calculated, but each has already changed the environments and lives of the people around them.
Gallons Of Oil
By far, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has leaked the most crude oil--up to 184 million gallons, as estimated by officials. The spill began on April 20, 2010 with the explosion of a Deepwater Horizon Oil rig leased by BP. For each one of 86 days, millions of gallons of oil poured out 5,000 feet below the surface, only to be seen later floating in silvery streaks near and on the coast. Finally, the spill was capped on July 15, 2010.
Horrific images of workers drenched in oil came soon after China's largest reported oil spill in history. A pipeline had exploded on July 16, 2010 after workers pumped too much of a chemical into it. The Associated Press reports that the spill might even be larger than the 461,790 gallons originally estimated by the Chinese government. Rick Steiner, a US marine conservation specialist estimated that at least 18 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea?roughly the amount that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.
The largest oil spill in Midwest history leaked 800,000 gallons from a leaky pipeline in the city of Marshall in Calhoun Township on Monday. The Detroit News reported that residents of Battle Creak could smell the crude oil and at least 40 homes have been evacuated. Agencies are giving conflicting reports as to if the leak has been stopped yet, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Lives Lost
Eleven oil-rig workers died when the BP-leased oil rig exploded and set fire to the platform, says the New York Times. Two other workers died during the recovery effort, said MSNBC.
So far one death has been reported in China?s oil spill. The cleanup worker drowned, coated in crude oil.
No deaths have been reported from the oil spill in Michigan.
Response and Clean up
According to the company, BP has deployed 33,200 people, 4,300 vessels, 800 skimmers and 97 aircraft to date in an effort to clean up the oil. Military units have also been involved. BP?s new CEO said Friday that the companies relief efforts would be scaled back since there was very little oil still present on the surface of the water.
In an Associated Press article, Steiner is quoted calling China?s oil spill recovery efforts low-tech, but effective. Workers tried to remove the oil with their hands, buckets and chopsticks and they laid straw mats on the beaches to absorb the crude. Local officials deployed 800 fishing boats along with cleaning vessels using dispersants and oil-eating bacteria, Reuters reports. 8,000 workers later, city government officials announced the spill as ?all removed? on Monday.
Governor Jennifer Granholm declared a state of disaster in potentially affected areas surrounding the Kalamazoo River, which allows state departments to send resources to help clean-up. Enbridge, the company that operates the leaking pipeline, reported on Friday that the oil had been contained. Additional boats, skimmers and tanks were deployed on Friday morning in clean-up efforts.
Damage To Wildlife And Environment
Over 3,000 visibly-oiled birds, mammals, sea turtles, and other reptiles have been collected in the Gulf of Mexico as of Thursday, according to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1362 were collected dead.
The environmental group SkyTruth estimates that in total, 68,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico were at some point affected by the spill. The total wildlife lost is relatively small compared to that lost in the Exxon Valdez oil spill, barely 1 percent. But experts agree that the full impact cannot yet be estimated.
China's oil spill was first estimated to cover only about 165 square miles.
In Michigan, only one animal was recovered dead, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service.Seventeen geese, two swans, one turtle, one kingfisher and a muskrat have been collected. Though much smaller than the oil spill in the gulf, the oil may be more concentrated since it covers a much smaller area.
Damage To Economy
In dollars, the money lost by BP could be $37 billion as reported by CBS. This includes cleanup, and claims now and in the future.
Experts have not yet given dollar estimates on the oil spills in China and Michigan.
But beyond money spent in clean-up, each oil spill is likely to impact fishing and other water related industries for years. Victims of the oils spill in the Gulf of Mexico have already claimed $262 million in losses.
In China, environmental group Greenpeace China says seafood farming has been devastated, with 10,000 shellfish farms contaminated. The beaches and ports of Dalian city were closed right after the spill. Fishing was banned until august.
Residents have been displaced by the Michigan oil spill, but damage to the Michigan economy is not yet fully evident.
Summing It All Up
In total, about 202 million gallons of oil ended up where it didn't belong. Together, they covered an area almost as large as the state of Oklahoma.