Michigan Agencies Fail to Act on Plastic Pellet Spill That Polluted Kalamazoo River for Weeks

For three weeks, tens of thousands of pounds of plastic pellets sat alongside the Kalamazoo River, polluting Michigan waters while environmental regulators didn't even know they were there.

The spill was hidden in plain sight. Tiny white plastic pellets lined the shoulder of I-196 near Saugatuck, Michigan, clinging to guardrails and collecting in drifts along a bridge over the Kalamazoo River. They blended perfectly into the wintery roadside landscape following a semi-trailer crash in January.

But it wasn't just dirty snow. It was tens of thousands of pounds of industrial plastic called "nurdles" which sat unnoticed next to a Lake Michigan tributary for three weeks while the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy — the agency responsible for protecting Michigan waters — didn't even know they were there.

The Michigan Department of Transportation knew, but didn't tell its fellow agency.

A thaw eventually exposed the problem — but not before plastic made its way into the river, where the pellets pose risk to fish and wildlife and can break down into waterborne chemicals. Cleanup is underway, but environmental advocates say the incident highlights a gap in regulations and spill reporting around industrial microplastics which trucking services are moving en masse around the nation's highways — sometimes in hazardous weather.

What Exactly Happened

At 3 p.m. on Jan. 27, a semi-trailer hauling 48,000 pounds of tiny polystyrene plastic pellets performed a "defensive maneuver" to avoid stopped vehicles and crashed into the guardrail along northbound I-196, spilling its load at the south end of a river bridge.

The weather was bad. It was a whiteout blizzard and emergency services were busy responding to numerous highway crashes. The trailer, driven by the Iowa trucking firm Quest Liner, a part of the McCoy Group, spilled 28,000 pounds of plastic from chutes that are supposed to dispense pellets at manufacturing facilities where they're melted and formed into plastic products.

Photos from the scene show large, obvious piles of plastic under the trailer, which local first responders and dispatch logs indicate were partially removed by loaders. According to EGLE, the trailer was then towed 11 miles north to a towing yard off M-40 at Exit 49 in Holland. The trailer continued to spill pellets the entire way.

"We did see pellets in low to moderate concentration along that whole stretch as it was just kind of pouring out as they went along the road," said Eddie Kostelnik, an analyst in EGLE's emerging pollutants section.

There was still an estimated 5,000 pounds of pellets inside the trailer when the tow began, said Kostelnik. Those which spilled onto the highway shoulder didn't all stay there. Many became enmeshed in roadside gravel and grass, but some migrated into tributaries and drains.

Twenty-three days after the crash, on Feb. 19, Youngs Environmental, a Quest Liner contractor, contacted EGLE to ask about cleanup. The inquiry was a surprise to EGLE staff, who scrambled out to the site to assess the scope of spilled plastic. They found a huge pile next to a twisted, broken guardrail on the south end of the highway bridge, pellets on the bridge deck and the tops of bridge pillars, in wetlands along the riverbank, in the river itself, and spread along the embankment on the north end of the bridge.

Pellets littered the roadside for miles. Silt fencing was placed around the big pile. On Feb. 25, EGLE notified the public with a press release about the spill. The next evening, the Michigan Department of Transportation closed the northbound lanes to remove the roadside pellet pile, which was estimated at about 28,000 pounds.

On Feb. 26, EGLE issued a violation notice to Quest Liner, calling the pellet discharge a "continuing" violation of state water quality law that prohibits the discharge of floating or settleable solids into state waters.

Since then, crews have been sucking pellets from the shoulder and ditches using a modified push-mower collection system attached to vacuum trucks. Work has been slow and dependent on dry weather. Catch basin inserts have been installed to prevent pellets from washing into storm drains. Vegetation along the river has been left in place in some areas because it's acting as a barrier to further movement.

Early dive surveys suggest limited accumulation on the river bottom near the crash site, but EGLE is still evaluating whether pellets may have floated or migrated farther. The crash is just upriver from Lake Michigan, where nurdles are known to find their way into beaches.

Of the truck's pellet load, roughly 33,000 pounds have been recovered and 15,000 pounds remain unaccounted for, Kostelnik said.

Why Did It Take So Long

Technically, the state knew about the spill the day it occurred. According to EGLE, Quest Liner told MDOT about the spill immediately. However, the company wasn't required to notify environmental regulators because the pellets aren't considered a "hazardous" material that would prompt an emergency cleanup.

The state transportation agency did not subsequently notify EGLE about the spill — although it did issue a construction permit to Youngs Environmental to remove the plastic pile.

It's not exactly clear why no one at MDOT took the step of telling its sister agency about the spilled plastic.

John Richard, a spokesperson for MDOT, said telling EGLE isn't the agency's responsibility and that cleanup wasn't feasible until the snow melted anyway.

"It's always up to the private company that's responsible for the incident to contact all of the appropriate personnel," Richard said. "The road agency, in this case MDOT, has no idea what or how much anyone is hauling," Richard said. "Our priority is to safely clear the crash scene and get the road back open as soon as possible. With the piled-up snow, the blizzard, the crash and the nurdles looking identical to snow, it was impossible to tell if anything was spilled let alone how much."

Elaine Sterrett Isley, director of the Saugatuck Coastal Dunes Alliance, agreed that the snow cover was a practical factor which limited early response — but also thinks that a three-week delay in telling EGLE is another example of "those lovely state silos."

"When the crash happened, I'm assuming the responding parties didn't understand why this is an environmental problem," Isely said. "They just saw it as litter."

The Microplastic Problem

Microplastics are certainly litter — but of a more pernicious type. Like PFAS before them, microplastics are considered an "emerging" contaminant. Scientists and regulators are still working to understand their behavior, risks and how to manage them.

Last week, the EPA proposed to list them as drinking water contaminants, which would require states to monitor microplastics in tap water and take steps to limit exposure. This Michigan incident comes at a critical time for environmental regulation around emerging contaminants.

The Michigan Microplastics Coalition, founded in 2023 by former environmental consultant Art Hirsch, has been working to raise awareness about microplastic pollution in the state.

"Why did it take so long for EGLE to get notified and all of a sudden start initiating some sort of corrective action?" asked Hirsch. "They could have been more aggressive in addressing this, because it ultimately ended up polluting the Kalamazoo River," Hirsch said.

The spill raises questions about how Michigan regulates trucking of industrial materials and whether the state needs better reporting requirements for spills of non-hazardous but environmentally damaging materials.

The Kalamazoo River is a major watershed that drains into Lake Michigan, affecting thousands of residents and supporting diverse ecosystems. This incident could have lasting impacts on water quality, fish populations, and recreational uses of the river.

What's Next

EGLE continues to monitor the river for evidence that pellets have migrated or accumulated. Cleanup efforts are ongoing, though the full scope of contamination is still being assessed.

Questions remain about whether the state needs to update its regulations around industrial microplastic spills, particularly for materials that aren't classified as hazardous but still pose environmental risks.

The Michigan Microplastics Coalition is calling for greater transparency and accountability around industrial pollution in Michigan waters. They're also pushing for better coordination between state agencies to ensure environmental concerns are addressed promptly.

This incident highlights the challenges of regulating emerging contaminants and the importance of state agencies working together to protect Michigan's natural resources.