Michigan Beer Distributor Distributes Free Drinking Water to Kalamazoo River Oil Spill Volunteers, Clean-Up Crew

Atlas Sales Inc., a family-owned beer and wine distributor in Michigan that serves an area including Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties, recently distributed more than 24,000 cans of drinking water to the volunteers and clean-up crew working at the site of the massive Kalamazoo River oil spill. Video of the delivery is available here.

While the Gulf Coast still works to clean up one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, southwest Michigan now is facing an oil spill of its own. More than a million gallons of oil spilled from a pipeline near Marshall Township in late July, contaminating an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River from Marshall and Battle Creek all the way to Galesburg just east of Kalamazoo. U.S. Representative Mark Schauer (MI-7) called the oil spill the “largest oil spill in the history of the Midwest.”

“Atlas Sales has served this community for generations, we consider it part of our family and we want to do everything we can to help clean up the oil spill that has devastated the Kalamazoo River and the wildlife and plant life in the area,” Atlas President Greg Dunn said.

“The Kalamazoo River defines who we are in this community. Many businesses depend on a healthy Kalamazoo River to attract everything from tourists and anglers to families looking to spend a day canoeing on the river. It is one of the great rivers of the Midwest that we want to protect today and for generations to come. Atlas Sales is proud of the community and the many volunteers who stepped forward in this crisis and we are ready to do what we can to help.”

Atlas Sales worked with the Anheuser-Busch emergency drinking water program to bring around 1,000 cases – or around 24,000 cans – of drinking water to Atlas’ location in Battle Creek. Atlas then delivered the water to a centralized location near the spill site for distribution to volunteers and clean-up crewmembers.

To learn more about Atlas Sales Inc., visit http://www.atlassalesinc.com.

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