Land, Water, and Resolve: 15 Years of Healing After Oil Spill

(MARSHALL, Mich.) July 25, 2025 marks 15 years since one of the largest inland oil spills in history.

On July 25, 2010, Enbridge’s Line 6B Pipeline ruptured, spilling oil into Talmadge Creek and eventually into the Kalamazoo River. 

More than one million gallons of tar sands oil were released. According to the Department of Justice, it took Enbridge nearly 17 hours to recognize and report the rupture. The pipeline was restarted twice, sending additional oil through the broken pipeline on July 26. 

In total, more than 30 miles of the Kalamazoo River and its surrounding floodplains were contaminated.

Christine Kosmowski, President of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, remembers the day vividly. 

"The oil was so thick, it was like molasses coming over the dam,” she said. “Frankly, I just didn't feel very hopeful at that moment…that they were going to be able to contain it. Thankfully, they were able to stop it at Morrow Lake.”

In the years since, Enbridge has focused on restoring the affected area by removing pollution, replanting native plants, and supporting the return of wildlife. Today, the area around Talmage Creek is once again home to box turtles, raptors, and other species.

Since 2019, Enbridge has partnered with 7th Legacy, a Native American consulting firm.

“We wanted to make sure to incorporate plants that were important to our culture, so we spent a lot of time doing sweetgrass restoration,” said Desmond Berry, member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians and co-founder of 7th Legacy. “We planted cedar trees along here…We planted dozens of blueberry plants, raspberries. We planted other fruit trees, nut trees, plants that were native to this area.”

Berry says he has visited the Marshall site each month since the collaboration began. The area, including Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River, is part of the ancestral homeland of Native American Tribes.

His co-founder, Kristine Ingrao (also a member of the Grand Traverse Band), says 7th Legacy facilitated a peacemaking process between Tribal Spiritual Elders and Enbridge executives. 

“We told them: ‘If you want to start somewhere, don't start with the people,’” Ingrao said. “Start with creation, start with the earth, start with the land, start with the water. Come here with an open heart and a willingness to be open and speak to the nature around you, and tell [the earth] you're sorry that we're humans, that we're flawed, that we made a mistake.”

Restoration efforts also included removing pollution that had been in the river for decades.

“Enbridge, through their contractors, cleaned that entire river, and they removed historical pollution from that river–pollution that was there for 50, 70, 80, 100 years,” Berry explained.

Another major step in the clean up was the removal of the Ceresco Dam. 

Kenneth Kornheiser, Vice President of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, has paddled on the river since before the spill and wonders how dam removal would have unfolded without the disaster.

“What you had was an area that was essentially stripmined at the time to remove tar sands from the bottom, and so, that area is greatly altered,” said Korneheiser.

Kornheiser also raised concerns about whether there are any long-term health impacts from the spill.

“In some cases, people who were very close to the spill were exposed to volatile compounds,” Kornheiser said. “Volatile suggests that these would evaporate quickly. Those compounds were highly toxic and I think there are lots of questions about how those people, and we're in the low hundreds probably, but there were certain people who were exposed to highly toxic inhalants.”

He said if any health studies have been done, he hasn’t heard about them.

While both Kosmowski and Kornheiser agree that significant restoration work has been done, Kosmowski is still cautious. Especially when it comes to pockets of submerged oil that remain within the Kalamazoo River, which she says were left because it would have caused more harm to the ecosystem to remove them. 

"I would like more research done into the stretch of the river to see if there are lingering issues that we need to be concerned with,” Kosmowski said. “My alarm level, it's certainly not as high as it was 15 years ago."

Enbridge responded to the concerns saying, “The health and safety of area residents who were impacted by the release have been our top priority since the incident occurred in July 2010. In 2012, a study released by the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) found there were no long-term health effects. It stated: “The MDCH has concluded that contact with submerged oil will not cause long-term health effects or a higher than normal risk of cancer.” The full report can be found at this link.

A 2015 report from the Michigan Department of Community of Health said people are not expected to have long term effects from breathing the oil-related chemicals immediately after the spill. 

Enbridge also responded to concerns about the submerged oil pockets stating, “A very small percentage of the oil stuck to particles of suspended sediment and some did settle to the river bottom.  The oil never became denser than water at any time.  This “submerged oil” was subsequently removed through agitation of the sediment and dredging.”

Brent Rush, Enbridge’s Technical Manager of Tribal Engagement and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, says the company continues to take responsibility for the 2010 spill.

"Enbridge took a lot of lessons away from what happened in Marshall,” said Rush. He said many procedures have changes, such as “how the pipeline operates, how we interact with the community, even procedures about turning a pipeline on if there's been an issue, [as well as] independent verification checks.”

According to Rush, the restoration site (in the area of Talmadge Creek) is now the only area in Michigan that is free of invasive species. 

“We wanted to really see this as a place where this is reconciliation for what happened and forgiveness from the Tribes, from Mother earth, for what was done here,” he noted. “We want to make sure that it doesn't happen again…that it's restored right and that we take all the right steps.”

To learn more about Enbridge’s response to the Kalamazoo River oil spill, visit https://www.enbridge.com/marshall/marshall-release-timeline 

Enbridge is a Native District Executive Benefactor of Verified News Network (VNN). Through this benefactor program, Enbridge provides financial support to help sustain Indigenous-led journalism and storytelling. However, VNN maintains full editorial independence, and this article was produced in alignment with our commitment to fair, accurate, and culturally responsible reporting. For more information about the Native District Benefactor Program, visit Verified News Network.