Kalamazoo and River.
That's where the pipeline company Enbridge, which has considerable Wisconsin operations, spilled more than 800,000 gallons of oil - - in 2010 - - and the cleanup isn't done yet:
The Environmental Protection Agency will not extend the December 31 deadline it gave Enbridge Energy to finish dredging oil from portions of the Kalamazoo River. In March the EPA ordered Enbridge to remove up to 18,000 gallons of submerged oil by the end of the year.
More on the propensity of these pipelines to leak, here - - and note that one expert has predicted that the Keystone XL pipeline - - a project proposed by another pipeline company, TransCanada, will cross the largest United States underground water supply beneath the Great Plains carrying more than 800,000 barrels of thick tar sand crude oil daily, could see 91 spills over fifty years of operations:
[John] Stansbury notes that TransCanada, in its estimates, sees the possibility of 11 serious spills on the pipeline during the course of 50 years. He argues existing data suggests a more realistic estimate would be 91 accidents during that half century.
He also took issue with TransCanada's claims that it could shut down a pipeline within 19 minutes of a leak. A slow leak in a remote area of Montana or Nebraska could go undetected for days or even weeks between inspections, he warned. It took 56 minutes before ExxonMobil crews managed to stop the leak into the Yellowstone this month.
When you say Keystone, think Kalamazoo.The report goes on to estimate the potential consequences of spills on four separate locations: the Platte river and Sandhills in Nebraska, and the Missouri and Yellowstone in Montana. "Contaminants from a spill at the Platte river crossing would travel downstream unabated into the Missouri river for several hundred miles and affect drinking water intake for hundreds of thousands of people," the report warns.
I'm glad to see the EPA forcing a clean-up of the Kalamazoo River; one of the most polluted rivers in the US. It's not fair though that only one industry foots the bill.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget about the 60 year old Enbridge pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron.
ReplyDeletehttp://michiganradio.org/post/us-senators-want-more-info-enbridge-pipeline-running-through-straits-mackinac
I'd rather buy gas from Canadian oil than from the Hugo Chavez successors.
ReplyDeleteThe gas you buy comes off the world market; most of the Canadian crude through Keystone is already committed to Asia.
ReplyDeleteCould not agree more. For some strange reason, which I don't understand, the potential for spills barely gets mentioned these days. I have always thought that the likelihood of spills was one of the best arguments against building the pipeline.
ReplyDeleteIf oil flows across the US we get a cut thus reducing the trade imbalance with Asia.
ReplyDeleteThat's good for the US.