July 25, 2024 marks the 14th anniversary of one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history, which happened just three months after the BP Horizon Gulf Spill. On July 25, 2010, a pipeline operated by Enbridge – the same corporation operating the risky Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac – burst and released dirty tar sands oil into Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. Nearly forty miles of the Kalamazoo River were closed for cleanup until June 2012. Enbridge paid more than $177 million in penalties and was required to improve safety measures. The estimated cost of the cleanup was more than $1 billion.
Corrosion fatigue – poor maintenance by Enbridge – was cited as the underlying cause of the catastrophic breach by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman compared Enbridge’s inept handling of the spill to the Keystone Kops.
“Why didn’t they recognize what was happening, and what took so long?” she asked.
Enbridge recently came under further scrutiny, as in July 2024 the US Department of Justice proposed modifications to its consent decree with Enbridge. The consent decree is a legally-binding settlement agreement that requires Enbridge to improve pipeline repair and maintenance issues. The consent decree resolved the lawsuit United States v. Enbridge Energy, which arose from failures of Enbridge pipelines in Marshall, Michigan and Romeoville, Illinois. The proposed modifications would require Enbridge to reassess previously identified cracks in the Lakehead pipeline system – of which Line 5 is a part.
Fourteen years after Marshall, Enbridge still hasn’t learned its lesson. We shouldn’t need the federal government to compel Enbridge to use the most up-to-date tools and rigorous methods to inspect and maintain its pipelines.
Meanwhile, the people who lived through the oil spill disaster in Marshall continue to live with its ramifications. Enbridge purchased 150 residences near the spill site, uprooting hundreds of people from their homes. Childhoods were disrupted. Generations-old homesteads were sacrificed on the altar of Enbridge’s recklessness. The plans, dreams, and security of a community were ruptured like a weak, faulty pipe. We’ll never know all of their stories. With the purchase of their properties, Enbridge bought their silence — by requiring Non-Disclosure Agreements as part of the terms.
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