Enbridge calls St. Clair River issue low risk -- but Miller disagrees
BY TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS
The company that owns the crude oil pipeline that burst last month in mid-Michigan has no time line for repairing a dented section of pipe beneath the St. Clair River at Marysville, despite a congresswoman's concerns that any spill there could be "simply catastrophic" to metro Detroit's drinking water supply and the environment.
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, whose district includes Marysville, is asking that a Sept. 15 congressional hearing regarding the spill on Enbridge Energy Partners' line 6B near Marshall, which sent 820,000 gallons of oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River, be expanded to examine other problems along the line -- including the foot-long dent detected a year ago in the riverbed.
Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, told the Free Press on Wednesday that she didn't want to be an alarmist but was concerned that there seemed to be no urgency on the part of Enbridge or federal regulators to fix the damaged piece of pipeline even in the wake of last month's spill.
There are as many as 11 drinking water intake pipes for Michigan communities south of Marysville on the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, serving millions of residents.
Enbridge President and CEO Patrick Daniel and Vice President Stephen Wuori downplayed any risks from the dent Wednesday, saying it is "not an urgent matter" and maintaining that the additional step of reducing pressure in the pipeline was taken after the dent was detected.
Mary Dettloff, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said despite Enbridge calling the dent a low-risk issue, officials are very concerned about it.
Line 6B, part of Enbridge's 1,900-mile Lakehead System, runs from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario. It has been shut down since the spill was reported July 26. But Enbridge officials hope to begin pumping water through the pipeline to test it, with an eye toward restarting the line, pending approval from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
Daniel said he did not believe the dent -- which also was mentioned in a letter last week from U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, a Battle Creek Democrat whose district includes the Marshall site, to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood -- would have a bearing on a decision to restart the line.
Gina Jordan, an Enbridge spokeswoman, said it was believed that the dent has been in the pipeline since it was installed. The Free Press has reported on more than 200 anomalies detected along line 6B by Enbridge -- the vast majority of which have not been repaired yet -- but Enbridge said this dent is not among them.
Enbridge officials had asked PHMSA in the weeks before the spill for permission to continue operating line 6B below its maximum pressure for as long as 2 1/2 years while it repaired those anomalies but said that did not include fixing this section.
Miller said that although she doesn't believe the dent puts the region in imminent danger, she noted that the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico and reports of concerns about Enbridge's safety record in recent years require closer examination.