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Eugene

(61,593 posts)
Wed Jul 20, 2016, 01:37 PM Jul 2016

Enbridge Agrees to Spend $172 Million for 2010 Oil Spill

Source: Bloomberg

Enbridge Agrees to Spend $172 Million for 2010 Oil Spill

by Jennifer A Dlouhy
July 20, 2016 — 11:00 AM EDT Updated on July 20, 2016 — 1:16 PM EDT

Enbridge Inc. will spend $172 million paying fines and boosting safety across its pipeline operations in a deal with the Justice Department resolving Clean Water Act violations connected to its 2010 oil spill near Marshall, Michigan.

The settlement agreement announced Wednesday resolves the biggest lingering legal questions over the failure of Enbridge’s Line 6B, which sent more than 20,000 barrels of oil gushing into a Kalamazoo River tributary when it ruptured six years ago. The incident became one of the largest inland spills in U.S. history and stoked concerns about the safety of pipelines moving heavy Canadian crude across the border.

Under the settlement, Enbridge agreed to pay $62 million for violating the Clean Water Act, the largest fine for a pipeline spill ever under that law. The company also will spend at least $110 million taking steps to improve operations and prevent spills across its Lakehead pipeline system spanning 2,000 miles near the Great Lakes. Enbridge is required under the deal to replace nearly 300 miles of one of the pipelines, and is agreeing to pay over $5.4 million to reimburse the government for cleanup costs.

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It is the second-largest Clean Water Act fine in a settlement, behind only those penalties levied in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Justice Department. Previously, the biggest Clean Water Act fine tied to a pipeline spill was a $34 million penalty against Colonial Pipeline Co. in 2003, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-20/enbridge-agrees-to-spend-172-million-for-2010-michigan-spill

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