By Port Huron Times Herald
If we learned anything from the BP oil spill, it's the importance of safety precautions. April's Gulf of Mexico disaster has been called the worst off-shore oil spill in North America's history. It also is suspected of failed safety measures.
The July oil spill near Marshall brought that lesson home to Michigan. A pipeline ruptured and spilled almost 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River.
Part of Enbridge Energy Partners' 1,900-mile Lakehead System, Line 6B carries crude oil from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia. The pipeline has a foot-long dent in a section beneath the St. Clair River near Marysville.
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, has pushed Enbridge officials to treat the problem more seriously.
Miller, in a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar, pressed the importance of congressional oversight to prevent a spill into the St. Clair River.
"There are multiple water intake pipes along the St. Clair River that provide the drinking water for millions in southeast Michigan. The river also flows into Lake St. Clair and on to the Detroit River and Lake Erie. An accident similar to the event that occurred in Marshall would be simply catastrophic to our region," Miller said.
In a Sept. 15 news release, Miller said she "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."
Enbridge's promise shouldn't come as a surprise. It was announced before the House Transportation and Information Committee opened its hearings last week on the Marshall oil spill.
What committee members learned about the pipeline's status was not encouraging. Tests Enbridge performed on Line 6B in 2007 and 2009 found 329 defects that required repairs. So far, the company has repaired 61 of the problems.
Still, Enbridge spokeswoman Lorraine Grymala said pipeline safety is a top company priority.
"Marshall has given us all cause for concern and we are looking at that to make sure it doesn't happen again," Grymala said.
Enbridge is committed to submitting its dent-repair plan by Sept. 26, and the company must meet a 60-day deadline to finish the work. The work can't come soon enough.
Miller also was right to support Macomb County officials who want Enbridge and Sunoco Inc. to provide funding for a monitoring system for their St. Clair River pipelines.
The request is appropriate given investigators' reports on Enbridge's initial response to the Marshall oil spill. Although a drop in pressure on July 25 indicated a spill, the company didn't confirm the leak until the following day -- and that was after a local utility confirmed it first.