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Officials say spill in Straits of Mackinac was “minor”

Members of a state board in charge of the safety of pipelines say they’re not alarmed by a recent coolant spill into the Straits of Mackinac.

An early April spill has been classified as “minor.”

Electric cables leaked about 600 gallons of synthetic coolant into the Straits of Mackinac. And officials say between the cleanup and the type of fluid that leaked, there’s no real environmental damage.

But environmental groups continue to call for cables like this and pipelines under the Straits to be shut down. Heidi Grether is with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and has a seat on the board. She says the board doesn’t have the authority to do that.

“We are not here to just unilaterally make decisions we might or might not like to do.”

       Grether says she’s pleased with how the cleanup went. But some members voiced concerns about what would have happened if there was a spill of crude oil.