Enbridge Energy Partners will pay $62 million in fines and around $120 million to prevent future spills, it said in a statement.
Advertisement
With the river as the backdrop, Assistant Attorney General John Cruden announced the settlement, which also includes 165 pages of improvements the company will be required to make.
The settlement adds to the expenses Enbridge has incurred for the spill near Marshall, Michigan, which oozed into Talmadge Creek and then the Kalamazoo River. The system moves about 1.7 million barrels of oil each day.
Enbridge must also pay the government $5.4 million for costs it incurred during cleanup of the Marshall spill.
Particular scrutiny was required for twin underwater pipelines that cross the Straits of Mackinac, the waterway linking Lakes Huron and MI in northern MI.
Directives for Line 5 include installation of pipeline supports, a pipeline movement study, quarterly inspections utilizing acoustic leak detection.
The current Line 3 was built in the 1960s and runs 1,097 miles from near Edmonton, Alta., to Superior. That line will be replaced along its US footprint.
The deal with the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency will resolve claims from the spills which fouled waters with more than 26,000 barrels of heavy crude in Marshall, Michigan, and Romeoville, Illinois.
Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. has agreed to pay $177 million in penalties and improved safety measures in a settlement with the USA government tied to one of the largest inland oil spills in US history.
Enbridge did not shut down its ruptured pipeline nor did it disclose the ongoing spill for 17 hours, according to a 2012 report by the National Transportation Safety Board. Traces of oil were detected as far away as near Morrow Lake – 38 miles to the west.
Kaplan said the severity of the Marshall spill – an uncontrolled stream of thick tar sands oil into fresh water – could have been “absolutely worst case” as the river feeds into Lake Michigan.
The disaster brought health concerns, fish advisories, loss of access to the river, loss of business and, in some cases, loss of homes.
The rupture and discharges were caused by stress corrosion cracking on the pipeline, control room misinterpretations and other problems and pervasive organization failures at Enbridge.
“Enbridge’s actions leading up to the spill were deplorable: federal investigators found that Enbridge’s integrity management procedures were so deficient that Enbridge allowed well-documented crack defects in corroded areas to propagate until the pipeline failed”, DeFazio said. Enbridge, Canada’s largest pipeline company, a year ago reached a settlement with state officials to pay $75 million over the incident.
Enbridge past year reached a $75 million settlement with MI requiring it to restore wetlands, compensate the state for money spent on the cleanup, and other measures.
EPA and Justice officials said the settlement contains measures that ensure such mistakes will not happen again.
“We accept the civil penalties and enhanced safety measures in the decree”, Mark Maki, president of the Enbridge unit that operates the pipeline, said in a statement.
Advertisement
As a company, we have memorialized the Marshall release.
