It comes almost six years to the day – July 25, 2010 – after a ruptured underground oil line near Marshall sent more than 800,000 gallons of crude oil into a creek connected to the Kalamazoo River.
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The government complaint also alleges that on September 9, 2010, another Enbridge pipeline, known as Line 6A, discharged at least 6,427 barrels of oil which Romeoville, Illinois, much of which flowed through a drainage ditch into a retention pond in Romeoville. The spill forced many residents living near the river to vacate their homes, damaged the watershed and killed wildlife along a 40-mile stretch of the river downstream to Galesburg.
The Latest on a settlement between the federal government and Enbridge Energy Partners over a 2010 oil spill in southwestern MI (all times local): 5:20 p.m.: Enbridge Energy Partners has reached a $176 million settlement with the federal government for the costliest inland oil spill in US history. Enbridge discharged at least a million gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek near Marshall.
The other spill covered in the settlement occurred the same year in Romeoville, Illinois, when more than 6,400 barrels of oil was released from another Enbridge pipeline, suggesting that Enbridge has, or at least had, a pipeline safety problem.
“This agreement puts in place advanced leak detection and monitoring requirements to make sure a disaster like this one doesn’t happen again”, said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator at the EPA’s enforcement branch, in a statement.
The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, has paid $1.2 billion for cleanup and environmental restoration, which was completed in 2014. Previously, the biggest Clean Water Act fine tied to a pipeline spill was a $34 million penalty levied against Colonial Pipeline Co.in 2003, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Enbridge’s reputation also suffered.
The settlement covers two spills, but one of them was a doozy. It took 17 hours for the company to realize what was happening.
In the meantime, Enbridge restarted Line 6B twice on July 26, 2010, pumping additional oil into the ruptured pipeline and causing additional discharges of oil into the environment.
Enbridge’s Line 3, which runs from Canada through Minnesota to Duluth, near Lake Superior, will be replaced along its US footprint.
Implement an enhanced pipeline inspection and spill prevention program.
“The learnings from our experience have made us a better company and the way we think about safety has changed”, said Monaco.
The agreement was filed with the U.S. District Court for Michigan’s Western District.
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Enbridge said it accepts the fines and measures required under the consent decree. Miles said the funds will be used to address work that was done to clean up the river and surrounding environment, as well as set the table for preventive measures against future spills.
