"DETROIT -- The first call came in from one of the control towers at drawbridges along the Rouge River. It was April 10, 2002, and by the time the reports of large amounts of oil in the water reached U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, the spill likely had been under way for at least a day. By the time the contaminated flows had stopped, as many as 250,000 gallons of oil had spread over three miles of the Rouge, into the Detroit River and been carried as far south as Lake Erie."

"Ten years after the spill — after millions of taxpayer dollars' worth of cleanup and after investigators came across what appeared to be a perfect suspect — no charges have been filed in what came to be known as The Mystery Spill, and one of the river's worst for those whose livelihoods depend on it."

Jim Lynch reports for the Detroit News April 30, 2012. [2]