© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Parts of Kalamazoo River may reopen for recreation

View from I-94 of clean up efforts from last year's oil spill.
Photo by Steve Carmody/Michigan Radio
View from I-94 of clean up efforts from last year's oil spill.

Summer recreation may return to parts of the Kalamazoo River. Michigan health officials are studying the effects of an oil spill last summer. The spill dumped more than 800-thousand gallons into the river near Marshall.  If reports are positive, the no-contact order on areas of the Kalamazoo River may be lifted. The order banned swimming, boating and fishing.

Linda Vail Buzas is director of Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services. She says she’s been pleased with the cleanup efforts.

“There’s been a lot of work going on. It’s gone out of the public eye since shortly after it happened but they have been working on it continuously since the original spill. The work has never ceased.”

Buzas says she expects to know the environmental status of the river in early June.