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Residents near oil spill advised to evacuate

By AP

MARSHALL TOWNSHIP, MI –

Health officials are advising residents in about 30 to 50 homes near the site of a southern Michigan oil spill to evacuate because of air quality concerns.

Calhoun County health official Jim Rutherford says workers were going door-to-door Thursday afternoon to advise them to leave their homes.

Rutherford also says health officials are advising people living in about 100 homes with wells within a certain radius of the riverbank to use bottled water for drinking and cooking.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 1 million gallons of oil may have leaked this week into the Kalamazoo River, which leads to Lake Michigan.

The site is in Marshall Township, about 60 miles southeast of Grand Rapids.

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