By CRYSTAL GARCIA
Times Herald and TODD SPANGLER Detroit Free Press

Repairs are in the works for a dent in the St. Clair County portion of the same pipeline that spewed nearly 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River.

Enbridge Inc. is to present a repair plan for a dented section of pipe under the St. Clair River by Sept. 26 -- at which time it will be under a 60-day deadline to complete that work.

The plan was unveiled before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as it opened a hearing into the July spill along Enbridge Energy Partners' Line 6B near Marshall.

The spill released about 820,000 gallons of crude oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River.

Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, said when she started asking questions about Line 6B and the anomalies throughout the pipeline -- particularly the dent --Enbridge was "quite cavalier about it."

However, in a news release issued late Wednesday, Miller said she had "received assurances from Enbridge that a remediation plan to repair or replace that section of pipeline will be forthcoming before the end of the month."

Miller said Enbridge was operating the line at 50% pressure and Enbridge had asked the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for a 2½-year extension to continue operations in that fashion.

Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari said PHMSA -- which is part of his department --rejected Enbridge's request to run at lower pressures, meaning it will have to fix the defects in the line sooner than that.

Much of Wednesday's hearing focused on hundreds of defects found in the line that burst, which the company had found through testing in 2007 and 2008. The defects were all east -- or downstream -- of the spill site. The line carries crude to refineries in Ontario.

Jeff Friedland, director of the Emergency Management Agency of St. Clair County, said he has been in contact with Miller's office and has a map of where the pipeline dent is situated.

"It's an issue that needs to be on the table and thoroughly discussed," he said of the dent. He said all parties involved must communicate to have a better idea of the situation and how to handle it.

"It's there, and it's probably been there for a long time," Friedland said about the dent. "But I think there just needs to be open communication about the dent and if there is a need to repair and what the course of action would be, or open communication for assurances that it's not a risk."

Miller also acknowledged efforts by Macomb County officials who have asked Enbridge and Sunoco Inc. -- both have pipelines running under the St. Clair River -- to help pay for a monitoring system for the river and other regional waterways.

Miller said she had urged Enbridge officials "to carefully review a request from the Macomb County Water Quality Board for Enbridge's participation in a public-private partnership. ...

"I believe this system benefits not only water users in our region, but also would help serve as an early warning system for Enbridge and other petro-chemical companies along the St. Clair River in the event of a spill."

Investigators' reports show that, although alarms followed a drop in pressure near Marshall on July 25, it was not until the next day when a local utility -- and not Enbridge -- confirmed the leak along Talmadge Creek in Calhoun County.

"Why did it take so long to shut off that pipe?" the committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, asked Enbridge President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel. Oberstar noted that, just weeks before the spill, another Enbridge official was before the committee, touting its leak-detection system.

Committee members including three Michigan representatives -- Mark Schauer of Battle Creek, Vern Ehlers of Grand Rapids and Miller -- questioned Enbridge's response and its approach to safety, as well as the performance of federal regulators at PHMSA.

For more than a year, safety along Enbridge's 1,900-mile Lakehead System had been a concern, with nearly a dozen inspections this year, Porcari said. Corrosion -- which may have had a role in the Marshall break -- has been a concern throughout the system.

"We have repeatedly warned Enbridge to focus on the safety and performance of its entire Lakehead Pipeline," Porcari said.

That conflicted with Daniel's testimony in which he said Enbridge's safety record is far better than the industry average.

"For Enbridge," he said, "no spill is acceptable."

The Free Press reported this week a defect found on the section of pipe that burst wasn't considered serious enough to warrant reporting or fixing, raising questions about whether the threshold for requiring repairs is low enough.

"We will not restart this pipeline until not only we deem it safe but the regulator deems it to be safe," Daniel said.

The Obama administration Wednesday proposed tougher rules for pipeline companies in the wake of the oil spill in Michigan.

The nation's pipeline-safety law expires at the end of this month and Congress was expected to reauthorize it. But the Marshall spill -- considered the largest pipeline spill ever in the Midwest -- significantly raised pressure for a stricter law.

The proposal would increase penalties for the most serious violations, add inspectors, and call for a review that could lead to higher standards applied to lines that go through more environmentally sensitive or highly populated areas to all pipelines.

The department also is looking at establishing standards for leak detection and control-room procedures in the aftermath of a spill.