a photograph taken this week by state inspectors shows oil on a pond near the leak.

Workers have removed an estimated 1,700 gallons of oil which spilled from a pipe in Convis Township.

Workers from Omimex Energy in Ludington, which owns the well, and several subcontractors have been working 12-hours each day since a leak was discovered June 12 in a three-inch pipe,  Kristy Shimko, Calhoun County Field Geologist for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, said Thursday.

The DEQ is estimating as many as 4,000 gallons of oil and 20,000 gallons of brine or salt water has leaked from a small hole in an underground pipe which carries the fluids from a well near Bellevue and 13-Mile Roads to a processing site just east of the intersection of 12 1/2 Mile Road and T Drive North.

The oil and water was pumped from a well installed in 1975 and through what is called a flow line to the processing center where the oil, gas and water are separated.

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Battle Creek Enquirer – Trace Christenson – 06/22/2017