#stopenbridge

4/26/2017 - Midwest Energy News

“Duffy added that in the past 15 years, Enbridge counts “three incidents on Line 5 that have resulted in a total of approximately 21 barrels (882 gallons) of product being released off the mainline. All of the product released during these three incidents was recovered. There has never been an incident along Line 5 at the Straits.”

However, those figures are vastly different from what the National Wildlife Federation found. The group counted 14 incidents since 2002 totaling roughly 27,000 gallons released.

Responding to the difference in figures, Duffy said: “Any other releases in that time frame would have happened within our facilities. And when that happens nearly all of that product can be recovered and put back into the system.”

But Wallace said those releases “very much should be” included in the total amount of incidents.

“Pumping stations and other above ground equipment, along Line 5, would not be in operation without Line 5 and those parts of the system are as much of a risk to the public and our environment as the below ground equipment,” Wallace responded.”

4/26/2017 - MLive

“The organization released the results of Wallace's research this week, estimating that Line 5, which runs from Superior, Wis., to Sarnia, Ontario by way of Michigan, has spilled at least 1.13 million gallons of oil in 29 incidents since 1968.

The data comes from inspection records obtained by the NWF through the Freedom of Information Act and others put online recently by the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which Congress has required to make more information accessible to the public.

The NWF considers its estimate conservative because the research identified known spills, like a 1980 spill in Hiawatha National Forest, that weren't in federal records. Regulatory requirements during much of the 1980s stipulated Enbridge only had to report spills to the state, not the federal government.

Many incidents were related to construction mishaps. Others were caused by manufacturing defects in the pipe, such as stress cracking along a seam.

The most common theme was the method of spill discovery.

"Only one spill I could find was discovered by leak detection systems," said Wallace, a Pipeline Safety Trust board member who co-authored the NWF's 2012 "Sunken Hazard" report that helped galvanize scrutiny on the Line 5 section under the Straits of Mackinac.

Many of the spills incident records do not say how the leak was initially detected. The remainder were found by the public or Enbridge staff on the ground.

The NWF says that's a troubling reminder of the colossal failure that caused the Line 6B spill into the Kalamazoo River in 2010, when the company didn't notice the pipeline had ruptured until being alerted by an outside caller 17 hours later.”

All pipelines leak, from Enbridge’s mouth:

The group says the amount of manufacturing and construction defects and weld failures revealed by Wallace's research call into question the overall integrity of the Line 5 system.

"This newly-released data shows a worse history of spill and detection systems failing over time," said Mike Shriberg, NWF Great Lakes regional director, who also sits on the state of Michigan's Pipeline Safety Advisory Board.

...

The most recent spill is a small one, about 8 gallons, caused by an equipment failure on March 5, 2015 near Marenisco that Enbridge staff discovered while conducting a station review. The cause was recorded as a seal that failed due to "normal wear and tear."

Danger, danger:

“According to the data, the largest spills happened earlier in Line 5's history -- apart from a fairly well known 222,600-gallon oil and natural gas liquid spill near Crystal Falls in 1999, caused by the line lying on a rock, which forced the evacuation of about 500 people after responders ignited a vapor cloud that sparked a 36-hour long fire.

...

In 1972 near Iron River, a 252,000-gallon spill was caused by a longitudinal weld failure. A resulting fire injured two people.“

3/30/2017 - introduced in Lansing

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2017-2018/billintroduced/Senate/pdf/2017-SIB-0292.pdf

4/3/2017 - Petoskey News

Jones offered similar legislation about a year ago, which calls for an amendment to the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act to stop future pipelines from running through the Great Lakes. It would also require operators of current oil pipelines to undergo a full risk analysis by a qualified independent third party and turn it into the state. If the preliminary analysis concludes that risks are high, the pipeline would be shut down immediately.

“I do not believe that it is a question of if the line will fail, but when,” Jones said. “A leak from the pipeline under the Straits would devastate the state’s thriving boating, fishing and tourism industries and wreak havoc on the health of the world’s largest collection of fresh water.

“I fully expect the analysis will determine that keeping Line 5 open is too high of a risk, and it will be forced to be decommissioned under the Straits.”

5/26/2016 - Michigan Radio

"They say it would take 99 years for Lake Michigan to recover from a spill," Jones says. "Lake Huron perhaps 22 years, and then of course all the other lakes that we have. Forty million people use this for drinking water – and they cannot drink Canadian oil."

Jones says the oil that runs through the pipeline doesn't even benefit Michigan directly.

"This isn't going to Michigan refineries for the most part," says Jones. "It is simply taking a shortcut, through Michigan, through the Great Lakes, to get over to Sarnia where it can be refined. And perhaps they sell us some gasoline. However, there's no reason to run this through Michigan. They can run it through Ontario and get it to the refinery without endangering our Great Lakes.”