Kalamazoo River oil spill: $3.7 million penalty proposed

Photo retrieved from: www.lansingstatejournal.com

“Federal regulators recommended a record $3.7 million penalty against Canada’s Enbridge Energy on Monday for a July 2010 pipeline rupture that sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River.

In its report, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration – PHMSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation – detailed two dozen probable violations of federal regulations, saying Enbridge failed to address potential problems on the line before the break near Marshall in south-central Michigan and didn’t follow its own procedures for responding to the spill.

Enbridge restarted the line – twice – despite warnings at its control center in Edmonton, Alberta, indicating a problem on the line that crisscrosses Michigan. As a result, more than 15,000 barrels of oil – 630,000 gallons – was injected into the pipeline, much of it spilling into Talmadge Creek.

Last month, the Free Press reported that a 34-mile portion of the Kalamazoo River, which Talmadge Creek feeds into and which had been closed after the oil spill, had finally been reopened to recreation, though cleanup efforts were still continuing nearly two years later. While Enbridge had estimated the size of the spill at more than 800,000 gallons, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said more than 1.1-million gallons of oil had been recovered from the site of the spill.”

Read more: LSJ.com