Oil sands crude gushing from Enbridge’s ruptured Michigan pipeline this summer made hundreds of people sick, a new report reveals.
“Headache, nausea, and respiratory symptoms were the predominant symptoms reported by exposed individuals in all reporting systems,” reads the Michigan Department of Community Health analysis.
“These symptoms are consistent with the published literature regarding potential health effects associated with acute exposure to crude oil.”
Calgary-based pipeline firm Enbridge reported a major pipeline leak late this July. More than three million litres of crude from Alberta’s oil sands spilled into a creek feeding the Kalamazoo River.
The crude was bound for refineries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ontario.
By early September, 145 people had visited area health providers for a wide variety of symptoms related to oil exposure. Nearly 81 percent lived or worked near the polluted waterways.
The severity of about 65 percent of the visits was classified as “moderate”, according to the health report.
A further 320 people reported feeling ill during four community surveys, it said.
Dangerously high levels of air-borne benzene released during the spill could be the cause, recent media reporting suggests.
Enbridge proposes to build a pipeline connecting Alberta's oil sands to B.C.'s west coast and then shipping crude on supertankers to Asian markets. (Click here to read a Tyee dispatch from a tiny First Nations fishing village along the proposed route).
Federal Liberal, New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois MPs passed a non-binding resolution supporting a ban on west coast tanker traffic last week.
It came days after 61 B.C. interior First Nations groups announced their opposition to Enbridge's pipeline plans.
Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee
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Barryeng
1 year ago
Enbridge's answer
Just watch . . . since this proposed pipeline will be going through largely uninhabited areas(because the terrain is too rough to live in), Enbridge is going to reply that a spill on the Gateway line will not damage health, because no one lives nearby. Since they could never clean it up anyway, there would be no point in risking the health of their workers when a spill happened. The oil would just have to stay where it fell.
Sask Resident
1 year ago
Source of crude
Geoff Dembicki has no idea where the crude that spilled from the Enbridge pipeline came from. It may have come from the oil sands but since it was very volatile, it probably included lighter crudes from conventional sources.
Also, what does the proposed Gateway pipeline have to do with a 20 year old pipeline in the US yet no mention of the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline to Vancouver, where some is loaded on ships for exports. Or does the author believe that the environment at Kitimat is more important than the environment plus 2 million people in the lower mainland?
geoffdembicki
1 year ago
re: Source of crude
Enbridge confirmed shortly after the spill that its pipeline was carrying crude from Cold Lake, a large oil sands deposit east of Edmonton. http://michiganmessenger.com/40744/pipeline-spill-underlines-fears-of-new-tar-sands-development
"I’m not saying ‘No, it’s not oil sands crude,'" CEO Pat Daniels said after being pressed on the issue.
http://michiganmessenger.com/40839/patrick-daniel-downplays-long-term-effects-of-spill
And when a company proposes a major pipeline project with strong environmental opposition, its safety record in other jurisdictions should be part of the public debate. Indeed, it already is, as this Financial Post story noted last summer:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Fallout+from+Enbridge+Michigan+spill+spreads/3332997/story.html