Chair of U.S. regulator says Enbridge handled of 2010 spill like ‘Keystone Kops’

By Lauren Krugel

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Enbridge Inc. handled a 2010 spill from one of its crude pipelines in Michigan like the “Keystone Kops,” the chairwoman of a U.S. regulatory board said Tuesday in revealing the conclusions of its investigation into the incident.

Deborah Hersman, chair of the U.S. the National Transportation Safety Board, said it took more than 17 hours for Enbridge staff to respond to a rupture from Line 6B in southern Michigan.

The company only after it was alerted by a worker with a gas utility and then mishandled the problem, she said.

“Learning about Enbridge’s poor handling of the rupture, you can’t help but think of the Keystone Kops,” she said, referring to the incompetent policemen portrayed in early 20th century silent films.

“Why didn’t they recognize what was happening? What took so long?”

Instead of stopping the flow, Enbridge staff twice pumped more crude into the ruptured pipeline — representing about 81 per cent of the total release, Hersman said, according to the text of her prepared remarks.

Hersman added Calgary-based Enbridge — one of North America’s largest pipeline operators — found the defect that led to the spill back in 2005.

“Yet, for five years they did nothing to address the corrosion or cracking at the rupture site — and the problem festered.”

More than three million litres of crude oil spilled into nearby wetlands, Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River.

The total cleanup cost is more than $800 million — more than five times the next most-costly onshore oil spill, Hersman said.

Hersman says poor regulatory oversight by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration was also to blame.

“In this rupture, we saw the operator take advantage of weak regulations for assessing and repairing crack indications; and PHMSA was ineffective in overseeing Enbridge’s pipeline integrity management programs, control centre procedures, and public awareness programs; and had inadequate review of oil spill response plans,” she said.

But Hersman said PHMSA did take the “necessary and important step” of proposing a $3.7-million fine against Enbridge last week.

Critics of Enbridge’s (TSX:ENB) proposed Northern Gateway system between Alberta and the B.C. coast are likely to seize on the NTSB report as evidence the company should not be allowed to build the $5.5-billion pipeline.

The proposed project would link oilsands crude to Asian markets, allowing Canadian companies to get a better price for the oil they produce. Enbridge has said it’s confident it can operate the pipeline and marine terminal safely with top-notch procedures and equipment.

But First Nations groups, environmentalists and others fear a spill from a pipeline itself, or from the tankers that would travel in and out of the pipeline’s terminus at Kitimat, B.C., could cause severe environmental damage.

A Canadian regulatory panel is in the midst of hearings into the project. More than 4,000 people have registered to speak.

The NTSB results show pipelines that carry oilsands crude — often referred to as “tar sands” by critics — are “dirty and dangerous,” said Anthony Swift, a lawyer and energy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“It has become the most expensive pipeline disaster in U.S. history and emergency responders are still struggling to clean up the Kalamazoo River,” Swift said in a statement.

The NDRC is one of the most vocal opponents to the Keystone XL pipeline, a proposal by TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) to ship oilsands crude to Texas refineries. Keystone XL has faced repeated delays due to concerns about the risk of building the pipeline through environmentally sensitive areas.

“The government investigation raises serious questions about whether corrosive tar sands can be safely moved, especially when they cross farms and waters in the U.S. heartland as the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would do. It also makes clear that we need better transparency in our pipeline reporting; first responders have to know what they are cleaning up,” Swift said.

12:27ET 10-07-12