MichiganRadio

Kalamazoo River spill not likely to affect Lake Michigan, experts say ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - Governor Granholm may have overestimated the risk of the Kalamazoo River oil spill spreading to Lake Michigan.

The governor said earlier this week that the million-gallon spill of crude oil near Marshall would be a "tragedy of historic proportions" if it reached the Great Lake.

Stephen Hamilton is a Michigan State University professor with the Kellogg Biological Station.

He believes it's unlikely the spill will travel that far.

Still, Hamilton says the governor did the right thing.

"I think a few days ago that was an appropriate alarm to raise, because it resulted in ramping up the efforts to capture and remove the oil," Hamilton says.

Hamilton says there's 80 more miles of river, two major reservoirs and a lot of wetlands which could trap the oil before it gets to Lake Michigan.

Hamilton says the true ecological tragedy is the 35 miles of the Kalamazoo River fouled by the spill.
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