BP refinery glitch leaks oil into Lake Michigan

Crude oil has spilled into Lake Michigan, US, from a BP oil refinery. According to the oil firm, a malfunction at the Whiting refinery caused an undetermined amount of crude oil to leak into the lake. Regulators have said that on Tuesday (March 25th), the oil appeared to be contained.

A mechanical issue that happened on Monday (March 24th) resulted in oil entering the cooling water system. This system discharges into the lake, causing the spill. The discharge was stopped once the company was aware of the leak and the oil that had spilled was contained, although it is not yet clear how much made its way into the lake.

Crews have begun cleanup operations, although it is not yet known how long the incident will take to fully clean up or what effect it has had upon the lake. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, around 60 per cent of Lake Michigan was covered in ice at the time of the spill, making the impact difficult to determine. 

A boom was laid down by the company in the water to stop the spread of oil, meaning that the crude is now contained in a cove between a nearby steel mill and the refinery; stopping it from impacting the wider lake area. Both the US Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency are at the site of the incident to monitor the situation.

This latest spill comes at a time when BP is already struggling from continued backlash to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which saw the Macondo well blowout and spill millions of barrels of oil into the sea. The spill has continued to cause health and environmental problems in the areas it affected.

As a result of this major spill, BP was banned from bidding on federal drilling licenses for a period of two years. This ban was only lifted earlier this month, meaning the Lake Michigan spill could not have come at a worse time.