The subsidiary of Enbridge, Canada’s largest pipeline company, previous year reached a settlement with state officials to pay $75 million over the incident.
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Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency are in Marshall on Wednesday to discuss the announcement.
The complaint also alleges that on September 9, 2010, another Enbridge pipeline, known as Line 6A, discharged at least 6,427 barrels of oil, much of which flowed through a drainage ditch into a retention pond in Romeoville.
Enbridge said of that amount, $61 million is for a pipeline rupture in MI that sent more than 18,869 barrels of crude into the Kalamazoo River and a tributary creek. It involves a 2010 pipeline rupture near Marshall, Michigan, that released an estimated 843,000 gallons of crude oil.
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. As a part of the settlement the company, however, neither confirms nor denies its legal responsibility made in the complaint by the federal agency.
It also commits the company to spend at least $110 million on a series of steps to prevent future spills and improve operations across almost 2,000 miles of its pipeline system across seven USA states in the Great Lakes region. Among those are a series of steps affecting the company’s controversial Line 5 – a pair of underwater pipelines running beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
“The state is pleased the settlement between the federal government and Enbridge has been finalized”, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Keith Creagh said Wednesday.
Enbridge must also pay the government $5.4 million for costs it incurred during cleanup of the Marshall spill. Enbridge will also pay civil penalties totaling $62 million for Clean Water Act violations.
Nearly six years to the day of the Enbridge Inc. oil spill into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River, the final chapter was opened.
Enbridge estimates cleanup costs from a pair of 2010 pipelines spills will be more than $1.2 billion. It reached a $75 million deal with the state previous year and bought 154 residences in the affected area.
Enbridge’s reputation also suffered.
An investigation of the Marshall spill by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the Kalamazoo spill was the result of errors seen in prior Enbridge accidents. It took 17 hours for the company to realize what was happening.
Enbridge must install pipeline supports, conduct a pipeline movement study, and make quarterly inspections using acoustic leak detection technology under the terms of the consent agreement. A study will consider adding an alternative leak detection system there.
Enbridge will also be required to upgrade monitoring and other equipment to ensure similar spills do not happen again.
“Enbridge is appropriately paying a heavy penalty for those failures”, Giles said.
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The settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period, after which a judge will decide whether to accept it. The spill affected water quality, fish and wildlife.
