Enbridge estimates cleanup costs from a pair of 2010 pipelines spills will be more than $1.2 billion.
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The Justice Department said the new settlement also resolves Enbridge’s liability under the Oil Pollution Act, based on Enbridge’s commitment to pay more than $5.4 million in unreimbursed costs incurred by the government in connection with cleanup of the Marshall spill, as well as all future removal costs incurred by the government in connection with that spill.
The Lakehead pipeline system is a network of 14 pipelines that span almost 2,000 miles across seven states, delivering 1.7 million barrels of oil a day.
In a statement, the EPA says Enbridge must also now adhere to strict guidelines.
“This settlement will make the delivery of our nation’s energy resources safer and more environmentally responsible”, Assistant Attorney General John Cruden of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said. She says she sees the Enbridge’s pipeline improvement orders as a business opportunity for the company – just like it was on the Kalamazoo River.
The settlement, such that it is, was reached after years of negotiations between Enbridge and the US government after Enbridge’s pipeline ruptured in 2010, spilling hundreds of gallons of heavy crude into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
On July 25th, 2010 a pipeline near Marshall, Michigan ruptured, discharging oil into the environment.
Enbridge’s Line 3, which runs from Canada through Minnesota to Duluth, near Lake Superior, will be replaced along its USA footprint. Despite system alarms, more than 17 hours passed before the line was completely shut down.
According to the Department of Justice, the rupture was caused by stress corrosion cracking on the pipeline, misinterpretations in the control room, and other failures of the organization at Enbridge.
After the Marshall release in July 2010, we made a promise to the people of south-central MI to restore the area, including the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek, as close as possible to its pre-spill condition.
The breach happened on July 25, 2010, but it took at least a day for Enbridge to figure out that a six-foot-long rip in the 30-inch pipeline was gushing oil, the agencies said. In April 2015, Gov. Rick Snyder announced the 40-mile stretch of the river that had been impacted by the spill was completely open for all recreational uses.
Enbridge Energy Partners said in a statement it accepts the penalties and safety measures it is required to take under the consent decree with the federal agencies.
As a company, we have memorialized the Marshall release. “The size of the settlement highlights the need for the state to be able to capture similar restitution if spills ever again happen in our waterways, to ensure the citizens of MI are properly compensated for impacts to our environment”.
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Last year, Enbridge reached a settlement with the State of MI that included $75 million USA on further river upgrades on top of the spill cleanup, and in 2014 the company reached a $6.8 million U.S. settlement with landowners on a class-action lawsuit.
