Talmadge Creek is a tributary of the

Kalamazoo River The Kalamazoo River is a river in the U.S. state of Michigan. The river is long from the junction of its North and South branches to its mouth at Lake Michigan, with a total length extending to when one includes the South Branch.U.S. Geologica ...

. It is located in Calhoun County, Michigan, near the county seat of

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

2010 crude oil spill

The creek is notable as the site of a major oil spill that made its way into the Kalamazoo River. On 26 July 2010, an estimated of crude oil-like

dilbit Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naphtha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines. Per the Alberta Oil Sands ...

leaked into the creek from a 30-inch pipeline operated by the

Enbridge Pipeline System The Enbridge Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system which transports crude oil and dilbit from Canada to the United States. The system exceeds in length including multiple paths. More than of the system is in the United States while the r ...

. The pipeline intersects the creek 0.5 miles east of Interstate 69 and approximately two miles south of Marshall. The leak location was a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

located less than 2 miles upstream from the Kalamazoo River, ensuring that the spilled hydrocarbons would soon enter the larger waterway, despite efforts to use booms to prevent the dilbit from reaching the river. In July 2016, Enbridge and the state of Michigan announced a legal settlement totaling $177 million for costs related to the spill.

References

Rivers of Calhoun County, Michigan Rivers of Michigan Tributaries of Lake Michigan {{Michigan-river-stub