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Michigan oil spill prompts evacuations

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., July 30 (UPI) -- An oil spill in the Kalamazoo River caused more evacuations near Battle Creek, Mich., and the owners of a ruptured pipeline pledged to pay all cleanup costs.

Work crews and machines were added to efforts to stop the spread of oil from Enbridge Energy Co. Inc.'s pipeline. Spill estimates ranged from 800,000 gallons to 1 million gallons.

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Concerns about air quality south of Battle Creek led to the evacuations Thursday, following 30 voluntary departures earlier this week.

One-hundred families along the contaminated river were asked to use bottled water, The Detroit News reported Friday.

The 30-inch-diameter line ruptured sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, sending oil into nearby Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River.

"We will spend whatever it takes to clean it up," said Patrick Daniel, president and chief executive officer of Enbridge, based in Calgary, Alberta. "We will clean it up to the satisfaction of the people here and the regulatory agencies involved. We have more than enough (money available) to do that."

Investigators said they didn't know what caused the rupture, exactly how much oil was released and how far the contamination had spread.

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Susan Hedman, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's district administrator, said EPA personnel don't think the spill has reached Morrow Lake, despite a report that oil sheen was spotted at the lake's dam.

Ralph Dollhopf, the EPA's coordinator at the scene, said the spill shouldn't pose a threat to Lake Michigan.

"We don't anticipate any risk to Lake Michigan," Dollhopf said. "We don't even want it go get farther than it is now."

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