Wood County Board Wants Enbridge Pipeline Expansion Fully Reviewed

Wood County officials are asking the WI DNR to do its fundamental public safety job and give the proposed tripling of Enbridge's Superior-to-Delavan tar sand oil pipeline capacity a full environmental review.

Public resource and monitoring and research and enforcement jobs, rather than this kind of politicized, special-interest obeisance.

More about the pipeline and Jefferson County opposition, here.

Rural Wisconsin is not on board with the pipeline or the DNR's laissez-faire, small no-government approach - - despite Enbridge's serious spill record in Wisconsin, Michigan and elsewhere.

Also not on the Enbridge bandwagon: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, who recently discussed the pipeline expansion and her opposition to it with the Jefferson Daily Union:

Enbridge Energies Line 61, which runs through Wisconsin from Superior to northern Illinois, currently carries approximately 400,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands oil per day. The pipeline crosses into Jefferson County near Waterloo and runs through the southwestern corner of the county, crossing beneath the Rock River south of Fort Atkinson just north of Lake Koshkonong...

“I think that there are reasons for concern, and I would support a full review to make sure it is still safe because it was reviewed and approved under lower volumes,” Burke said of the pipeline. “Now it is triple what it had been originally looked at. It is important to do an environmental review.

“This is a company that has had some safety issues in terms of spills or leaks, and we want to make sure that when we are transporting oil —or any hazardous material — that it is going to be safe through our communities in Wisconsin.”