Enbridge responded ?like Keystone Kops? to Kalamazoo pipeline spill, according to NTSB
20 July 2012
The Canadian operator of an oil pipeline that ruptured in Michigan in 2010, spilling more than three million litres of crude into the Kalamazoo River, was guilty of a ?complete breakdown of safety?, an investigation has found. Enbridge failed to address structural problems detected years earlier and failed to respond appropriately to the catastrophe, the National Transportation Safety Board said on July 11.
Enbridge estimates the Kalamazoo River clean up operations cost it more than $700 million
"Their employees performed like the Keystone Kops and failed to recognise their pipeline had ruptured and continued to pump crude into the environment," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in a statement.
The report found Enbridge knew in 2005 that the pipeline had corroded but failed to perform the repairs that could have prevented the rupture, the NTSB said. The company took more than 17 hours to realise oil was gushing into the Kalamazoo River.
The accident caused the most expensive onshore oil spill in US history with clean-up costs exceeding US$800 million. The federal pipeline agency last week fined Enbridge a record US$3.7 million.
Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel said the incident was the result of a ?series of unfortunate events?.
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