Michigan Company Was Warned About Oil Pipeline

[Robbien]

Source: Time

(BATTLE CREEK, Mich.) — A Canadian company whose pipeline leaked hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a Michigan river was warned by government regulators in January that its monitoring of corrosion in the pipeline was insufficient.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration told Enbridge Energy Partners Chairman Terry McGill in a Jan. 21 letter that its corrosion monitoring in Line 6B, the line that ruptured, did not comply with federal regulations. (See a timeline of the 100 days of the BP oil spill.)

According to the warning, Enbridge was implementing an alternate way of monitoring corrosion in the pipeline, and had detailed to regulators the steps it was taking to track corrosion in the meantime. (See more details on the Michigan oil spill.)

But the agency warned the company in the letter that it was violating code by not using certain chemicals used to protect pipe interiors, not using proper monitoring equipment to determine it those chemicals were working, and not examining its monitoring equipment at least twice a year.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2007484,00.html

---

Enbridge-related companies have been cited several times in recent years for violations in the Great Lakes region. The article mentions they've had half-dozen recent big spills.

Appears Enbridge uses the industry standard method of dealing with these little warning letters from the government. They just ignore them.

[defendandprotect]

1. Wow ... this story is not getting the attention it deserves . . !!

[Robbien]

3. Steven Schwartz stood on a bridge, clapping his hands to scare birds away from the water.

“I'll be here all night,” he said tearfully.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated because of the noxious smell. Battle Creek has been devastated.

And almost no one knows.

Yes indeed, this story is not getting the attention it deserves.

[defendandprotect]

13. Think we all have "oil spill" fatigue in a way... but I'm sure MSM isn't doing

what should be done -- but I do watch Olbermann, Maddow, Schultz and I don't think

even they have gotten to it --

Schultz, btw, did get to the Cat Food Commission tonight --

and C-span is covering it -- !!


We have to overturn capitalism -- it's a suicidal concept -- war on nature --

We have to NATIONALIZE the oil industry -- and it may already be too late!!????

:eyes:

[pruple]

2. K&R

I wish this was a bigger story nationally. I guess oil spills aren't fun to cover any more.

[Robbien]

5. Me too

There are a lot of great stories buried in this disaster and most of them are just that, buried.

A group of Battle Creek residents have set up a tent in a church parking lot in nearby Marshall, where they are collecting donations such as towels for wildlife cleanup efforts, said volunteer co-ordinator Matt Davis.

“We're just doing it. No one from the government or Enbridge asked us to do this,” Mr. Davis said. “It's a real hardship for everyone.”

I guess all Enbridge's people are busy doing PR damage control.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

4. SICKENING

It is sickening how there are, so far, no changes or improvements in regulation from our government, and even more sickening to me is that the public is for the most part silent on this, There should be 10 million people marching in Washington after all the oil industry has done to us - and apparently will be allowed to continue to do.

[Bozita]

6. I'm shocked! ... A revolving door problem? ... Shocked, I tell you!

http://michiganmessenger.com/40319/oil-spill-raises-fam...

Oil spill raises familiar questions about oversight
Activists question safety waiver grants, revolving door between industry and regulators
By ANDREW RESTUCCIA 7/30/10 10:20 AM


This week, a fracture in an Enbridge Energy pipeline released nearly a million gallons of oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in Battle Creek, Mich. The accident is drawing attention to the obscure Department of Transportation agency responsible for the regulation and oversight of the country’s 2.3 million miles of natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines: the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA.

A review of PHMSA records shows familiar ties between industry and regulators. A former legal counsel for the company responsible for the spill currently heads the oversight agency. In the last year, PHMSA has granted more than a dozen safety waivers to the companies it regulates. These waivers, industry observers say, have saved companies millions of dollars, but might have put people and property at risk.

Already, activists are drawing parallels between PHMSA and the Minerals Management Service, which had regulatory oversight over the Deepwater Horizon rig that spilled millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has disbanded MMS, arguing the agency had too cozy a relationship with the industry it regulated. And Congress is the midst of debate on broad oil spill response legislation that, in part, restructures MMS and puts restrictions on the agency’s so-called “revolving door.”

Questions About Quarterman’s Work History

Cynthia Quarterman, PHMSA administrator, worked as legal counsel for Enbridge Energy, the owner of the pipeline that burst in Michigan, during her time as a partner at the major law firm Steptoe and Johnson. Quarterman also headed MMS from 1995 to 1999. President Obama nominated Quarterman, who served on the president’s transition team at the Department of Energy, to serve as head of PHMSA last year. On his first day in the White House, Obama signed an executive order with a “revolving door ban,” barring appointees from regulating companies where they worked. The White House did not return calls for comment.

more...

[4_TN_TITANS]

7. Of course they were warned...

but regulators in this country have no teeth left after 8 years of Bush. Mines, refineries, off-shore rigs, pipelines, they're all going to hell in a handbasket and taking our environment with it.

[Bozita]

10. The head of the regulatory agency = former legal counsel of the spiller

[MichiganVote]

8. K&R

[knitter4democracy]

9. I live here. We're all just sick at heart. This is our river.

I'm a Creeker. Everyone's talking about it, I know many who are working on cleanup, and we're all just plain sick about it. There's a lot of anger in town against that company. They're as bad as BP.

[Bozita]

11. Why was there NO oil leak alarm/shutdown system installed on that MI pipe?

Why?

There is an entire industry that sells and maintains pipeline oil leak detection systems which can detect a leak and shut down the pipeline in less than 60 seconds.

Creekers must keep asking questions.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Oh, we are. Trust me. The Dems on the county commission are livid and kicking ass.

Their alarm was a guy who lived nearby and called it in, saying he smelled oil. They waited 13 hours to shut it off. There's no love here for that crappy company.

[defendandprotect]

14. Heavens . . . !!! Are you going to be able to stop them from using a dispersant????

[knitter4democracy]

16. So far, it looks like we have.

There's a lot of local involvement and oversight, and the big stuff they're doing is using booms and siphons to catch all the oil. Everyone I know involved is well aware of the dispersant issue.

[defendandprotect]

18. Good news there -- I did hear a very minor bit of discussion on this today on NPR . . .

not much, though!!

[Bozita]

15. *psssst*

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100730/NEWS06/100730049/1318/Oil-spill-response-time-scrutinized&template=fullarticle

"Enbridge President and CEO Patrick Daniel today addressed reports that an Enbridge truck was spotted in the area of the leak on Sunday night. He said the company has since confirmed that a truck of "very similar color and markings" to Enbridge was seen but it was not an Enbridge truck. He said he could not elaborate further."

[knitter4democracy]

17. That's slightly different from what I'd heard here locally.

Schauer's a good guy, and he's on it. The governor's pissed. The local county board has good people on it (for once), and they're pissed and working like mad. We take water issues here very seriously, and the river is a big one and has many, many uses all along it (fishing, boating, some industrial stuff still, etc.). People here are mad and are taking notes and are going to be kicking ass.

[Doctor_J]

19. Apprehend, prosecute, and imprison the Enbridge execs

in real prison. Time to change the entire viewpoint of the discussion - if you wipe out an entire region, you will go to prison and share the yard with the other murderers.