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Michigan disaster follows 12 other big spills or penalties this decade for giant aiming to pipe tar sands oil to Kitimat
Controlled burn after 6,000 barrels of oil spilled from ruptured Enbridge pipeline in Cohasset, Minnesota in July, 2002. Photo: US National Transportation Safety Board.
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Enbridge Inc, based in Calgary, Alberta, employs 6,000 workers and ranks 18th as one of Canada's largest companies in revenue. It operates the world's longest crude oil pipelines, through which it transports 12 per cent U.S. oil imports.
Between 1999 and 2008 Enbridge recorded 610 spills that released 132,000 barrels of hydrocarbons into farms, wetlands and waterways on the continent. According to the Polaris Institute, this volume of crude "amounts to approximately half of the oil that spilled from the oil tanker the Exxon Valdez after it struck a rock in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1988."
Patrick Daniel, CEO of Enbridge, says that "Energy is necessary for us to live long healthy lives." He proposes to construct a 1172-kilometre pipeline across 1,000 streams and rivers in northern B.C. to the port of Kitimat in order to put more cars on the road in China.
Enbridge made headlines in July as one of its pipelines caused the largest oil spill in the history of the U.S. Midwest.
Four months after the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration cited the company for improper corrosion monitoring on Line 6B, the 40-year old pipeline failed and spilled one million gallons into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, coating wildlife in oil and contaminating water sources for 100 homeowners. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm described the company's initial response as "anemic."
On July 15, 2010 Richard Adam, the vice president of Enbridge, told a congressional hearing on pipeline safety that "Safety and protection of the public and environment are our highest priorities, indeed I think it is a fair reading of our publications and actions that we hold this as a core value -- not just a priority." At the same hearings experts testified that "pipeline corrosion regulations are inadequate."
The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has cited Enbridge 31 times (including two "corrective action orders") since 2002 for not properly inspecting equipment or training its employees.
What follows is a recent history of 12 other serious pipeline mishaps and regulatory penalties involving Enbridge.
January 2001: Enbridge's Energy Transportation North Pipeline leaked 23,900 barrels of crude oil into a slough near Hardisty, Alberta. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada noted that the site of the leak on the aging pipeline had been identified a "high priority location" just four months earlier.
July 2002: A 34-inch diameter steel pipeline ruptured in a marsh west of Cohasset, Minnesota. To prevent 6,000 barrels (252,000 gallons) of crude oil from reaching the Mississippi River, the company set the oil on fire. The plume of smoke extended one mile high. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board blamed the rupture on “inadequate loading of the pipe for transportation.”
An Enbridge pipeline carrying crude oil from Saskatchewan to Chicago exploded, killing two workers trying to make a repair in Clearbrook, Minnesota in 2007.
January 2003: A pipeline failure resulted in a spill of 4,500 barrels of oil at Enbridge's oil terminal near Superior, Wisconsin. Approximately 500 barrels flowed into the Nemadji River, a tributary of Lake Superior.
April 2003: A gas explosion leveled an Etobicoke strip mall and killed seven people. It stands as the largest number of fatalities ever recorded in a pipeline incident in Canada. Ontario's Technical Standards and Safety Authority charged Enbridge with failure to provide accurate information and to ensure their contractors followed the law. The case is still in court.
April/May 2004: U.S. pipeline regulators fined Enbridge for failing to properly inspect oil and gas pipelines in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
January 2007: A pipeline break near Stanley, North Dakota spilled 9,030 gallons of oil. Regulators fined Enbridge for exceeding pressure standards for the pipeline.
February 2007: An estimated 176,000 gallons spilled in two separate incidents in Clark and Rusk County, Wisconsin. One pipeline cracked open and couldn't be shut off until an operator in Canada shut down the line. In the second incident work crews broke the same line, filling a hole 20 feet deep with oil and contaminating local groundwater. The company was fined $100,000 for not following safety standards.
November 2007: A 34-inch pipeline carrying bitumen to U.S. Midwest markets exploded, killing two workers near Clearbrook, Minnesota. The pipe had leaked two weeks prior to the explosion and was being repaired. The fireball, which leapt 100 feet into the air, temporarily jacked up the price of oil by four dollars and closed four other pipelines delivering 1.5 million barrels of crude a day. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration fined the company $2 million for exceeding pressure in its pipeline and for failing to follow safety procedures.
May 2008: Alberta's energy regulator delivered a "high risk enforcement action" against Enbridge for using "valves, flanges and fittings" on its Midstream pipeline that were not suitable for maximum operating pressure. No fines were levied.
January 2009: Enbridge agreed to pay a fine of $1 million to the government of Wisconsin after it committed more than 500 violations of the state's wetland and waterway protection regulations while constructing the $2 billion Southern Access pipeline to export 400,000 barrels of bitumen from Alberta to Chicago. Attorney General J. B Van Hollen said "the incidents of violation were numerous and widespread and resulted in impacts to the streams and wetlands throughout the various watersheds." Enbridge blamed the problems on "bad" weather.
January 2009: A valve blew on a pipe at the Enbridge Cheecham Terminal tank farm, spilling 4,000 barrels of oil near Anzac, Alberta. The leak wasn't detected for three hours and Alberta regulators issued no statements, because no member of the public was affected. Greenpeace initially reported the spill.
January 2010: A pipeline built in 1956 leaked 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) near Neche, North Dakoka. The PHMSA warned Enbridge twice that older pipelines were susceptible to failure. The line is part of the 1,900-mile-long Lakehead System that delivers crude from western Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma and Chicago.
Enbridge does not have the worst record in the oil patch. That distinction belongs to BP, polluter of the Gulf of Mexico. The PHMSA has cited the company 58 times for shoddy performance.
[Sources: U.S. National Safety Transportation Board; Transportation and Safety Board of Canada; U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration; Milwaukee Sentinel Journal; Ontario's Technical Standards and Safety Authority; Enbridge Corporate Social Responsibility Reports; Polaris Institute] ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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rac
2 years ago
Totally Incompetent
Allowing Enbridge to build a pipeline in BC would be as dumb as allowing BP to drill offshore. You would think that after the disaster in the Gulf, a company proposing to build a pipeline would be extra careful to avoid such a disaster. It is pretty obvious that they are totally incompetent and should not be allowed anywhere near oil anywhere. It is time that Premier Campbell put an end to the Northern Gateway Pipeline
Barryeng
2 years ago
Influence
It doesn't seem to matter how incompetent Enbridge is. Our governments (both of them) are just as bad. Common perception is that Enbridge has been given 300 million dollars to promote this line, either from other oil consortiums or directly from China, and promote it they will.
I've said it before but I'll say it again . . . 300 million dollars buys a lot of influence. I don't know what smells worse, an oil spill, or the corruption around the process.
RickW
2 years ago
"Energy is necessary for us to live long healthy lives."
But who are the "us"?
One I suspect, would be Patrick Daniel, CEO of Enbridge..............
A Voice
2 years ago
Lessons not learned
Politicains and oil companies, both are compulsive liars who will do whatever it takes or say whaever you want to hear, to get what they want.
If having the Liberals as a govt in BC, for as long as we have, hasn't taught the citizens of BC this lesson yet, then I fear nothing will. This pipeline is going to run through some of the most pristine ecosystems in BC, yet for some reason, this project is still proceeding, the ultimate goal?
Huge revenues for Enbridge (I mean their shareholders) and some revenue for the BC and Albertan govt, and a few peanuts thrown to the workers. I quote one of the greatest men of BC -
"It seems clear beyond the possibility of argument that any given generation of men can have only a lease, not ownership, of the earth; and one essential term of the lease is that the earth be handed on to the next generation with unimpaired potentialities. This is the conservationist's concern" -Robert Haig Brown
Fiat lux
2 years ago
Don't forget that accidents
Don't forget that accidents and disasters raise the GDP and that's all that counts in the warped minds of economists and politicians.
Not to mention the post politics directorships. Any politician who'd dare to question Enbridge's record could kiss goodbye to directorships with the corporate mafia.
Ed Deak.
doggone
2 years ago
I'm guessing
Most Canadians would be quite comfortable with an oil spill as long as it happens well (no pun) north of me (or south).
Enbridge is a disaster not waiting to happen.
I include myself in "most Canadians" - maybe next election I will vote Con/Lib. And buy Enbridge and B.P. stocks cheap
NOT!
mariner
2 years ago
IMPENDING DISASTERS
It sure seems that Campbell and Enbridge would make ideal partners - both are REAL DISASTERS JUST WAITING TO HAPPEN !!!
Whatever happened to good old fashioned common sense!!!
A great article.
Thanks
Fiat lux
2 years ago
Of course, China is anxious
Of course, China is anxious to "invest" the money we're paying them for products we could easily make here, by bringing it back and buying the country from under our feet.
Used to be called "colonization", but now has become "wealth creating foreign investment", the best racket in human history.
Meanwhile we're forking out billions for "defence".
The question is , who can defend us from our own so called "economists" and politicians on the take ?
Ed Deak.
Birch
2 years ago
Corruption
Whether corruption is blatant ($ for votes), which could happen in the Gateway situation, or the kind of reliance on a supplier when it comes to an addiction (needing those tax dollars to keep coming), both are destructive.
If Gateway were built and under operation it would move about $2 million worth of oil an hour under proposed volumes and at $100 a barrel (probably cheap, as peak oil becomes more evident). At $2 mil an hour no one would ever want to shut it off, spill or no spill, even with the peanuts in taxes local communities would collect.
The key to our survival is to make sure it never gets built.
BCMarg
2 years ago
Enbridge-political donation
This is a very informative article, and I agree with the comments. Here is a link to an official site which shows donations made to BC political parties:
http://contributions.electionsbc.gov.bc.ca/pcs/SA1ASearch.aspx (Very interesting reading!)
Enbridge has donated over $50,000 to the BC Liberal Party and nothing to any others. If they want to assist democracy, I think they would donate equally to all parties. Exactly what are they paying for? Are they also supporting the Federal Conservatives? This explains a lot!
Fiat lux
2 years ago
Enbridge didn't donate a
Enbridge didn't donate a penny. They've invested in " wealth creation" the BCLibs and whatever the party will be called next year, can assure them. As Taseko is doing with the Prosperity mine disaster.
Just because they call it a "donation" doesn't alter the fact that they demand profits from it.
Ed Deak.
crankypants
2 years ago
Recurring theme
The message I get from this article is that the penalties imposed for malfeasance by corporations such as Enbridge, BP, Suncor etc. are no deterent for bad behaviour. They may put up a fuss when having to pay a penalty, but in reality consider these expenditures a cost of doing business.
It's time the governments in Canada and the United States take a much more serious approach and hold the CEOs of these mega-corporations personally responsible for shoddy maintenance and business practices. The best deterent, as I see it, is serious jail time, and not in Club Fed, but with Bubba as their cellmate.
Also, I'm still waiting for whomever ordered the alarm system to be disabled in the Gulf of Mexico explosion to be charged with at least manslaughter for the deaths of those that lost their lives that fateful day.
mariner
2 years ago
ACCOUNTABILITY ??
Accountability by the right wing governments and their shareholders/supporters (big business) - no way. They are only accountable when it suits themselves.
Yes, as Crankypants says - throw the guilty CEO's, senior management and government ministers into jail, sharing cells with murderers, sex offenders, sexual deviates - whatever the prison system has to share around !
Even Gordon "the Liar" Campbell curled up in a fetal position in his urine soaked drunk tank and spoke with no one, when he got arrested for DUI in 2003.
Sorry, I just could not resist :-)
mariner
Fiat lux
2 years ago
The penalties on
The penalties on corporations carry no records and are tax deductible business expenses, paid by the public.
Some of the US corporations are paying hundreds of millions in penalties, while carrying on merrily, and their executives, who are committing the illegal and criminal actions are taking home millions every year, laughing all the way.
All coming out of the public's pockets as "earnings"
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
2 years ago
Big oil suppliers like
Big oil suppliers like Halliburton should be humble given the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, they are claiming that the current crisis wonât affect their business significantly. Governments and above all we, the informed public, should not put up with such obscene behaviour.
Houston-based oil-tech giant Halliburton has just announced that it is witnessing a boom in deep sea drilling activities. With this obscene remark, Halliburton has shown not only poor phrasing, but also extremely poor timing. The same company that helped build Deepwater Horizon, the oil-drilling platform which sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico three months ago and caused the biggest oil spill in American history, says: we are expecting business as usual, everything is running well, and in fact, we are earning more than ever! As CEO Dave Lesar reported on July 19: "I am very pleased with our second quarter results. Total revenue grew 17 percent and operating income grew 70 percent sequentially, driven by increased activity in the unconventional natural gas and oil basins in North America."
Just to cite some numbers: Halliburton's net income from current activities between April and June - the months affected by the crisis - has been 474 million US dollars, compared to 206 million for the first quarter of 2010. According to its recent press release, "all product service lines contributed to this increase, with production enhancement exhibiting especially strong sequential growth followed by completion tools, cementing, and directional drilling." Halliburton estimates that the deepwater drilling suspension imposed by the Obama Administration until the end of November will negatively impact its earnings by only up to $0.08 per share per quarter for the second half of 2010. Of course, investors have to be assured and stakeholders have to be satisfied. Regardless, how can this company be so boldly inconsiderate to publicly announce - in the midst of the crisis, while BP was still struggling to stop the oil spill and millions of liters per day were running in the ocean - that they are making lots of money?
Continued
Fiat lux
2 years ago
What is even worse is that
What is even worse is that Halliburton does not expect a serious impact on its business from a more severely regulated environment. "The events in the Gulf of Mexico have not stifled our enthusiasm for increased deepwater activity in the coming years," Lesar said. The company even hopes to earn more from stronger safety regulations in the future. How can Halliburton be so sure that it will survive unscathed by this crisis? Is it still well protected by lobbyists, or is this simply wishful thinking? I hope the latter. But just in case it is the former: we, the public and the media, should make sure that the US Government does not allow this sector to remain unreformed.
Big oil companies like BP and Halliburton, who have earned a lot of money in the past from globalization, must now be forced to heavily invest in adequate safety measures to minimize the risks associated with drilling operations. Just like the financial sector, the energy sector needs new rules and regulations to ensure that such a disaster never happens again. The suspension of deepwater drilling in the Gulf is a first step in the right direction. Mexico is also affected by the oil spill and drilling in the Gulf. Canada has big oil projects on the way in Alberta, which directly neighbor the US. So it is in the national interest of the US to invite those two countries to adopt its new regulations under a trilateral regime. With new CEO Bob Dudley, an American will lead the British oil giant for the first time in the company's history. Since BP is also drilling in Europe's North Sea, and since drilling activities will be taking place ever farther from shore, transatlantic standards for oil drilling should be found in the long run.
Oil is still the most important facilitator of the global economy. Everybody needs it every day, private consuClimate Policy Post-Copenhagen: A Three-Level Strategy for Successmers and industries alike. But the prize that we have paid in the Gulf is far too high. The damage caused will take years to undo, if nature can in fact ever recover. Given this new reality, new regulations must be found as quickly as possible in order to be able to return to business as usual.
Christoph Suess is a Trainee at the Hanauer Anzeiger and holds a diploma in International Relations from the Free University Berlin.
ASKBiblitz.com
2 years ago
Catastrophic leaky condo epidemic just as bad!
While I'm no fan of the hugely subsidized oil industry and the unconscionable risks its players like to take with Mother Nature, how about some attention to the decades-old leaky condo epidemic still in full swing? How can corporate media allow Canadian homebuilders to talk with any credibility about sustainability when building envelope failure within about five years is now the new normal?
How wasteful is that?
How toxic?
How many people, especially young children, succumb to asthma as a direct result of exposure to toxic mold visible and invisible in the wasteland of leaky condos littering this province?
More about this nonsense and how to fix it - http://www.askbiblitz.com/condo-guide.php
pender paul
2 years ago
enbridge helps pay my bills
I'm really sick and tired of folks slamming Enbridge. So they've had a bit of bad luck--who hasn't? The fact of the matter is that my pension plan, the BC Teachers' Pension Plan, owns a great big chunk of Enbridge and the dividends just keep rolling in. And of course its proposed pipeline will benefit China--that's great--why should they not enjoy the fruits of industrial society? And don't go getting any funny ideas about the cozy relationship between the provincial government, the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Enbridge--the marriage of capitalism and provincial politics was made in heaven--I know this because god told me so.
Hermans Hermit
2 years ago
pender paul
Why don't BC teachers attend enmasse with pitchforks and flaming torches at the doors of the BCTPP in order to protest these unethical investments?
The BCTPP investment portfolio includes:
Enbridge
BP
Royal Dutch Shell
Wal Mart
Exxon Mobil
General Electric
Nestle
GoldCorp
Canadian Banks
http://www.pensionsbc.ca/portal/page/portal/ANNUAL_REPORTS/TEACHERS_ANNUAL_REPORTS/2008/investments/
These capitalist institutions are anathema to everything the BCTF and its members stand for. Where the hell is the BCTF on these matters?!
RickW
2 years ago
Ontario Teachers Pension Fund
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpDpRE13mI
Des
2 years ago
You Can Bet
your bottom dollar that the bean counters at Enbridge, Haliburton and the rest of them have computed the difference between the "costs" of following safety regulations and the "profits" to be made by not following them. And betting on the outcome is what corporations do best.
Corporate deism has replaced the idea of an omnipotent God with the false god that too many of us follow blindly. Just show me the money, and I'll overlook your feet of clay, planted firmly on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico or on the steep sides of the Rocky Mountains.
A Voice
2 years ago
pender paul - enbridge helps
pender paul - enbridge helps pay my bills
Sure hope that comment is tongue in cheek....