Sure, we need another oil pipeline ... NOT

[MindMover]

Two years after oil spill, town and its creek are reshaped

Life has returned here, and it hasn't.

The water in Talmadge Creek runs clear now, and small schools of minnows shoot after each other, ducking behind creek rocks that seem too awkwardly settled to have been placed there by nature.

That's because they weren't. In the two years since one of the worst inland oil spills in U.S. history — when a pipeline break in a nearby marsh sent 819,000 gallons of toxic sludge sliding into the Talmadge and then down more than 30 miles of the Kalamazoo River — cleanup workers have dredged and rebuilt this creek from the bottom.

Now, Talmadge Creek is slowly headed back to normal, insomuch as normal is possible. The same could be said for the human ecosystem and the empty homes still surrounding the spill area.

The disaster itself was overshadowed by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that same summer, but it offers lessons for other communities and for other pipeline companies eager to tap Canada's lucrative oil sands market for American dollars.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-michigan-spill-20120729,0,865893.story

[moondust]

1. Enbridge.

The following lists Enbridge's pipeline spills and incidents over the last decade:

* June 2012 - Enbridge shuts 345,000 bpd Athabasca pipeline after 1,400 barrels of oil were spilled near Elk Point in northeast Alberta. The line was quickly restarted after the company was able to bypass the Elk Point pump station.

* March 2012 - Enbridge shuts the 318,000 bpd line 14/64 between Superior, Wisconsin, and Griffith, Indiana, after an SUV crashed into a pumping station near New Lenox, Illinois.

* September 2011 - Enbridge shuts Line 26, a 25,000 bpd oil pipeline running from Berthold, North Dakota, to Steelman, Saskatchewan, for one day after about 20 barrels of oil were spilled from a pumping station at Berthold.

* May 2011 - Enbridge estimates between 700 and 1,500 barrels of oil spilled from the 39,400 bpd Norman Wells pipeline south of Wrigley, Northwest Territories.

* November 2010 - Throughput on the 670,000 bpd Line 6A, which feeds Midwest refineries and the key Cushing, Oklahoma, crude oil hub, reduced after a problem with a power disruption from a local utility in Lockport, Illinois.

* September 2010 - Enbridge closed its 70,000 bpd Line 10, which runs from Westover, Ontario, to New York state, while the company investigated a small leak. It was quickly restarted when it was determined to be leak-free.

* September 2010 - Enbridge closed Line 6A for eight days after it leaked 6,100 barrels of crude near Romeoville, Illinois.

* July 2010 - Enbridge shut its 290,000-bpd Line 6B, which runs from Griffiths, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario, on July 26 after a rupture near Marshall, Michigan, spilled about 20,000 barrels into the Kalamazoo River system.

* January 2010: An Enbridge pipeline leaked around 3,000 barrels of crude near Neche, North Dakota. Authorities ordered Enbridge to reduce pressures on the line, and in a letter to Enbridge, raised concerns over the strength of some of its pipeline seams.

* November 2007: Two workers were killed after an Enbridge-operated pipeline caught fire in northern Minnesota. The same line had recently been repaired. Following the incident, which resulted in a pipeline closure, up to 20 percent of U.S. crude imports were temporarily halted. Enbridge was fined for having allowed pressure on the pipeline to exceed recommended limits.

* January 2007: A spill on an Enbridge line transporting Canadian crude to Chicago leaked around 1,190 barrels in rural Wisconsin. About a month later, and further north, the pipeline spilled 2,976 barrels after a construction crew broke the line.

* 2005: Enbridge spilled more than 9,825 barrels of oil in several incidents over the year, according to National Wildlife Federation data compiling spill volumes. Most oil was quickly contained by Enbridge.

* June 2003: Enbridge spilled around 452 barrels in Wisconsin's Nemadji River, and additional crude spilled from an Enbridge terminal was contained.

* July 2002: 6,000 barrels spilled from an Enbridge pipeline into marshlands near Cohasset, Minnesota.

http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-enbridge-oil-pipeline-incidents-171417447.html

[alp227]

2. Here's a CBC News article and video report about the Enbridge leak that affected Wisconsin

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/29/bc-enbridge-pipeline.html