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Enbridge misses river cleanup deadline as more oil discovered
News Articles Featured | Calgary Herald | September 09, 2011
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Pockets of submerged oil have been discovered in a Michigan river one year after an Enbridge Inc. pipeline ruptured, forcing the Calgarybased company to miss a key cleanup deadline set by U.S. regulators.
Enbridge said it could not meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency directive to completely recover oil in and on the Kalamazoo River by Aug. 31 because the scope of some contaminated areas had tripled.
The deadline had been issued before a reassessment of the spill had been completed in the summer, said spokeswoman Lorraine Grymala.
"Once summer cleanup began after the completion of the reassessment, we learned that some submerged oil locations had shifted since the reassessment and other areas expanded," Grymala said in an e-mail.
"The area actually worked to date has increased by 79 per cent over what was identified at the end of the spring reassessment."
The Line 6B oil pipeline break in July 2010 spewed more than 23,000 barrels, or three million litres, of heavy crude into a creek feeding the Kalamazoo River, tainting the lush recreational waterway for more than 50 kilometres.
Mark Durno, an emergency response official with the EPA who had been following the clean up efforts since the spill, said much of the remaining oil pollution was not immediately apparent.
"The river looks great," Durno said recently, to local media. "The problem isn't what you see. It's what you don't see."
Approximately 2,000 barrels of oil remain spread along 56 kilometres of the river, the EPA said.
The agency said it would continue to evaluate the company's work progress and expects Enbridge to complete the work as soon as possible. New timelines for the cleanup will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.
When questioned by the Herald if Enbridge faces additional penalties because of not meeting the August deadline, the agency said it is "evaluating additional steps."
The agency has spent $29.1 million so far in cleaning up the area, costs Enbridge will be required to reimburse.
The penalties would have to be extremely severe to affect parent company Enbridge, as much of the expense will be covered by insurance, noted Steven Paget, with FirstEnergy Capital Corp.
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Enbridge+misses+river+cleanup+deadline+more+discovered/5375192/story.html#ixzz1XlSPyQRy
Tagged with: pipeline, enbridge, oil spill, michigan, kalamazoo, cleanup
