US officials have levied a record $62 million fine against a Canadian oil company after a spill that sent 20,000 barrels of crude into a southwest MI river.
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The company also will spend at least $110 million taking steps to improve operations and prevent spills across its Lakehead pipeline system spanning 2,000 miles near the Great Lakes.
WOOD-TV cites anonymous sources in reporting the company will be fined $62 million and will be ordered to pay another $120 million for preventative measures to keep a similar spill from happening again. Enbridge is required under the deal to replace almost 300 miles of one of the pipelines.
The penalties for Enbridge come on top of other spill-related costs, including $4 million in natural resource damages the company agreed to pay past year.
Enbridge’s Lakehead System delivers approximately 1.7 million barrels of oil in the United States each day.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced the settlement Wednesday over a 2010 pipeline rupture near Marshall, Michigan, that released an estimated 843,000 gallons of crude oil. $5 million will also go toward various reimbursements. According to a USA government complaint, the pipeline rupture – which it blamed on corrosion – triggered alarms in Enbridge’s control room, but the company failed to notice until at least 17 hours later.
A July 2010 spill in Marshall, Michigan dumped about 20,000 barrels of crude oil and affected 38 miles (61 km) of the Kalamazoo River after the rupture of a pipeline due to corrosion fatigue.
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Flooding caused by heavy rains pushed the discharged oil over the river’s banks into its floodplains and accelerated its migration over 35 miles downstream before it was contained. The government’s complaint also alleged an Enbridge pipeline spilled at least 6,427 barrels of oil in Romeoville, Ill., on September 9, 2010.
