UPDATE: Sheen, discoloration visible in river (with photos and video)

LANSING, MI -- An equipment malfunction late Sunday at a Lansing Board of Water & Light power plant led to an oil spill in the Grand River of undetermined size.

Lansing Board of Water & Light spokesperson Steve Serkaian said equipment malfunctioned about 10:30 p.m. March 31, causing turbine oil to spill and overflow a containment area at Eckert Power Plant. The overflow reached part of the facility adjacent to the Grand River.

Lansing Board of Water & Light workers deployed oil-absorbing materials shortly after the incident. Serkaian said less than 300 gallons of oil spilled into the river before those materials were in place.

Utility staff installed two booms from shore to shore across the river near near Cherry Hill and Adado Riverfront parks.

Each boom also has special fabric to absorb any oil that reaches the boom, according to Serkaian.

Oil-absorbing materials are expected to remain in place at the river booms for several days and will be properly disposed of once they have collected the oil, Serkaian said. The Lansing Board of Water & Light has notified the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The utility is following standard cleanup procedures, which have been inspected by the DEQ.

Eckert Station is the Lansing Board of Water & Light's largest power plant. The coal-fired generating facility is located along the Grand River, adjacent to the General Motors Co. Lansing-Grand River plant.

In 2010, an Enbridge spill dumped more than 800,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River.

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