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Crews respond to oil spill in Flint River

Flint used the river for drinking water in 2014-15 before lead contamination caused the city to return to a regional water supplier.

Credit: AP

City, Genesee County and state of Michigan agencies are responding to a significant oil spill in the Flint River, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Officials for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said the spill, estimated at several thousand gallons, was reported to a state hotline at 8:15 a.m. Hugh McDiarmid, an EGLE spokesman, said state environmental officials and local emergency responders are in the area of the spill, James P. Cole Boulevard and I-475, and have begun to deploy a boom across the river in an effort to absorb the material. (Jake May/MLive.com/The Flint Journal via AP)

FLINT, Mich. — Authorities reported a significant oil spill Wednesday in the Flint River in Flint.

The spilled appeared to be five miles long, Jill Greenberg, a spokeswoman for Michigan's environmental agency, told MLive.com.

“Booms are being deployed and investigators are working to determine a source,” the department said on Twitter.

Officials said drinking water was not threatened. Flint used the river for drinking water in 2014-15 before lead contamination caused the city to return to a regional water supplier.

Mayor Sheldon Neeley said state and local agencies were at the scene.

“We are working to clean the substance from the river,” he said.

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