Kalamazoo Oil Spill Declared State of Emergency

(July 27) -- The last thing the United States needs at this point is yet another oil spill. But that's just what it got this week, times two.

On Monday, a 30-inch oil pipeline sprang a leak in Kalamazoo County, Mich., and it has now released more than 800,000 gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek, a tributary that flows into the Kalamazoo River.

According to mlive.com news, police, fire and rescue teams are frantically trying to contain the oil. The pipeline, which is owned by Enbridge Energy Partners, a Texas-based company, said it had shut down the pipeline but not before up to a million gallons of oil flowed into the creek.

The pipeline connects Michigan, Indiana and Ontario, Canada.

Local officials are advising residents to avoid all recreational activities in the Kalamazoo River, which flows into Lake Michigan. Despite earlier reports that the oil could reach the second largest of the Great Lakes by Sunday, creating a nightmare scenario for the nearly 12 million residents that live along its shores, officials now say that crews will likely be able to contain the mess before it reaches that point.

Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, a new oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico erupted when a boat struck an oil rig wellhead in Louisiana's Barataria Bay.

Wednesday will mark Day 100 since BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig went down in the Gulf of Mexico. An estimated 92 million gallons have leaked into the gulf since the spill began.

Read more on the Kalamazoo developments at m.live.com.