Environmentalists take on spills in St. Clair River

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http://detnews.com/2001/macomb/0103/04/c05-195106.htm

March 3, 2001

Environmentalists take on spills

Canadians must tell immediately of accidents, some say

By Gene Schabath / The Detroit News

MT. CLEMENS -- Macomb County environmental groups seek meetings with

Canadian officials and chemical plant operators over hazardous spills into

the St. Clair River.

The discussions, being requested by the Macomb Water Quality Board, are

in response to a public hearing last week that focused on more than 700

spills and contaminated discharges into the Canadian part of the river over

the past 15 years. The river flows into Lake St. Clair.

Doug Martz, chairman of the Water Quality Board and a group called St.

Clair Channelkeepers, said those observers want to be notified of all spills

in the river.

" Every spill and notification has to be done immediately ... not 24 hours

later, " he said. " The drinking water of too many Americans and Canadians is

at risk. "

No dates have yet been set for the meetings.

Last Dec. 16, Nova Chemical Co. near Sarnia, Ontario, discharged 250,000

gallons of toxic benzene, toluene and xylene. Company officials said most of

the chemicals were contained on land and less than a gallon reached the St.

Clair River.

But inquiries by the Water Quality Board into the incident divulged that

748 spills and discharges had been made into the river since 1986. Operators

of water plants downstream, including in Mt. Clemens, were never notified of

the spills.

" We do notify the Michigan State Police when we have a spill that will

have an adverse effect on downstream drinking water, " said Tim Erme,

supervisor of the Sarnia office of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Before the Dec. 16 spill, the last alert had been in 1994, said Erme, who

added that most of the 748 spills had occurred before then.

You can reach Gene Schabath at (810) 468-3614 or gschabath@....