DETROIT, April 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigators and law enforcement officials Monday worked to pinpoint the source of at least 10,000 gallons of industrial-grade crude oil that spilled into the Detroit River.
The spill, the worst in the Great Lakes since 1990, has polluted more than 27 miles of the Rouge River south of Detroit. Officials initially estimated about 5,000 gallons of waste oil had been released into the river on April 2 or 3, but the spill turned out to be at least 10,000 gallons.
More than 100 workers used floating booms to contain much of the slick and were able to vacuum up part of the oil along a two-mile stretch of river from Baby Creek to the Detroit River. Meanwhile, federal officials played detective checking storm drains and industrial sites to find the source of the spill.
Polluters face fines of up to $27,5000 a day in addition to the cost of the cleanup. The Detroit Free Press said clean up costs, which have already topped $500,000 without factoring in damage to fisheries and wildlife, could exceed $2.4 million.
EPA and U.S. Coast Guard spokesmen said early tests of the slick had not turned up PCBs or other hazardous chemicals.
Investigators collected samples from area industries and are comparing them with the spill.
"There have been some death of birds, some birds being rehabilitated, and dozens and dozens of sightings of birds under stress," Craig Czarnecki, a field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the newspaper.
Stretches of the river remained closed even though hundreds of boaters and fishermen were back in the water on Sunday.
Shorelines at Trenton, Elizabeth Park and Lake Erie Metropark in Gilbralar were the worst hit areas. Oil coated rocks and fouled breakwaters but several weekend walleye tournaments were held after the Fish and Wildlife Service said the deep water fish and were safe.
Over the past decade, the federal government has spent more than $600 million cleaning up the Rouge River, a waterway once nearly written off as an industrial sewer.
