On Sunday, July 25th 2010 an estimated 1.1 million gallons of raw tar sands crude oil burst from a pipeline into a creek that feeds the Kalamazoo River.
The oil spread quickly in the flooded river, coating wildlife, saturating marshlands, backyards, businesses and farm land. The flow of the oil was contained before reaching Lake Michigan.
The raw tar sands oil disaster was caused by a break in a pipeline owned by Canadian tar sands giant, Enbridge, which knew of safety problems with the pipeline for years before the disaster.
For more information, see Enbridge Oil Spill in Michigan, National Wildlife Federation website.