Enbridge Kalamazoo River Oil Spill: Company Ordered Finish Clean Up, Dredge River

VANCOUVER - More than two and a half years after a Canadian pipeline rupture spilled heavy oil into a Michigan River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ordering Calgary-based Enbridge (TSX:ENB) to perform additional dredging to remove submerged oil.

The agency said it has repeatedly found oil in sections of the Kalamazoo River.

Enbridge ordered back to Kalamazoo River for more clean-up

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Enbridge back to the site of the largest onshore oil spill in U.S. history to clean up remaining pools of bitumen in the Kalamazoo River.

Despite an unprecedented $800-million two year clean-up of one million gallons of oil (200,000 gallons more than Enbridge reported spilled), the EPA is still finding submerged bitumen contaminating a 38 mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River.

The beleaguered proponent of the controversial Northern Gateway project has ten days to respond or to submit work plans to clean up the remaining bitumen contamination.

Enbridge staff ignored warnings in Kalamazoo River spill

Enbridge pipeline controllers in Edmonton ignored repeated leak warnings for 17 hours before shutting down a pipeline that poured 20,000 barrels of oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in July 2010, says a report from the U. S. National Transportation Safety Board.

The report details how pipeline-monitoring staff in Enbridge’s Edmonton control room could not agree that a leak had occurred, while ignoring alarms that should have triggered a shutdown of the pipeline within 10 minutes of the leak occurring.