On December 16th, a 1,350-barrel (56,700-gallon) oil spill at a Regina terminal in Saskatchewan forced Enbridge to temporarily close a pipeline that connects to a terminal in Wisconsin. The 796,000 barrel-a-day Line 4 pipeline was shut down after a leak was detected in a valve.
Enbridge is a $57 billion company that is no stranger to oil spills. Early in 2014, a W5 report showed how Enbridge’s Line 9 had a host of unreported spills, alarming communities. According to the report, the 830 km Line 9 pipeline runs between Sarnia Ontario and Terrebonne Quebec has had at least 35 unreported spills.
Enbridge is best known for its role in the largest and most expensive inland oil spill in US history. The 2010 event in Michigan spilled more than 800,000-gallons (3.8 million liters or 20,000 barrels) of diluted oil-sands bitumen, contaminating a 48-km stretch of the Kalamazoo River. The cleanup was hampered by the fact that the tar sands crude sank to the bottom of the river. The cleanup costs alone were at least $1.2 billion excluding the reimbursement to those who were impacted.
Related
Oil Spill Poisons Muskeg in Northern Alberta
Two Pipeline Spills: Tar Sands and Brine
Unstoppable Oil Leak at a Tar Sands Production Site in Alberta
Infographic: 13 Oil Spills in 30 Days
Top 25 Oil Spills Over 1000 Tonnes in the Last Decade
Pipelines and Oil Spills in Alberta Canada
Enbridge and The Farce of Canada’s Carbon Capture
How the Hell did Enbridge get on the 2012 -2013 DJSI Leaders List?
