SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Kalamazoo River cleanup. (John Grap/The Enquirer)
Enbridge Refuses to Pay for Onoing Damage Study of Michigan Tar Sands Disaster
As Keystone XL tar sands pipeline gets boost to move forward, Kalamazoo River still reeling from 2010 tar sands spill
Mar 04, 2013
Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. is refusing to pay for an independent review designed to assess the ongoing environmental impacts caused by the nearly one million gallons of tar sands oil that spilled into Michigan's Kalamazoo River following a pipeline rupture in 2010.
Trustees of the National Resource Damage Assessment group--which includes state and federal agencies--has repeatedly requested that the Canada based company help pay for two needed reviews of the vegetation and recreational areas affected by the spill.
However, the Detroit Free Press reports that Enbridge refused the requests on two occasions, in both June and October, saying enough data had already been collected.
"Absolutely not," said Stephanie Millsap, a trustee representative for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to Enbridge's claim.
"The trustees' goal is to ensure Enbridge adequately compensates the public for the injuries their oil spill caused, and potentially is still causing, to natural resources," Millsap wrote in an email to Detroit Free Press.
"The oil not only oiled the actual river itself but also many, many acres of floodplain habitat, as well," she said. The spill damaged roughly 40 miles along the fragile ecosystem, forced the closure of portions of the river until 2012, and has required a lengthy cleanup process that continues to this day.
"If spilled into the environment, oil produced from tar sands is just as damaging as oil produced by other means, as residents along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan learned in 2010. Cleanup of that oil spill is still under way nearly three years later. Surely, producers of oil from tar sands should help contribute to the costs of cleaning up these spills -- just like producers of other oil must do," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
A proposal for a cross-country pipeline by Keystone XL, which would carry the highly toxic and corrosive tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, remains an imminent possibility. On Friday, a draft of an environmental impact assessment, approved by the Obama administration, was released and quickly and came under fire from environmental groups over the assessment's blatant inadequacies.
_______________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Jacob Chamberlain
Jacob Chamberlain is a former staff writer for Common Dreams. His website is www.jacobpchamberlain.com.
Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. is refusing to pay for an independent review designed to assess the ongoing environmental impacts caused by the nearly one million gallons of tar sands oil that spilled into Michigan's Kalamazoo River following a pipeline rupture in 2010.
Trustees of the National Resource Damage Assessment group--which includes state and federal agencies--has repeatedly requested that the Canada based company help pay for two needed reviews of the vegetation and recreational areas affected by the spill.
However, the Detroit Free Press reports that Enbridge refused the requests on two occasions, in both June and October, saying enough data had already been collected.
"Absolutely not," said Stephanie Millsap, a trustee representative for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to Enbridge's claim.
"The trustees' goal is to ensure Enbridge adequately compensates the public for the injuries their oil spill caused, and potentially is still causing, to natural resources," Millsap wrote in an email to Detroit Free Press.
"The oil not only oiled the actual river itself but also many, many acres of floodplain habitat, as well," she said. The spill damaged roughly 40 miles along the fragile ecosystem, forced the closure of portions of the river until 2012, and has required a lengthy cleanup process that continues to this day.
"If spilled into the environment, oil produced from tar sands is just as damaging as oil produced by other means, as residents along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan learned in 2010. Cleanup of that oil spill is still under way nearly three years later. Surely, producers of oil from tar sands should help contribute to the costs of cleaning up these spills -- just like producers of other oil must do," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
A proposal for a cross-country pipeline by Keystone XL, which would carry the highly toxic and corrosive tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, remains an imminent possibility. On Friday, a draft of an environmental impact assessment, approved by the Obama administration, was released and quickly and came under fire from environmental groups over the assessment's blatant inadequacies.
_______________________
Jacob Chamberlain
Jacob Chamberlain is a former staff writer for Common Dreams. His website is www.jacobpchamberlain.com.
Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. is refusing to pay for an independent review designed to assess the ongoing environmental impacts caused by the nearly one million gallons of tar sands oil that spilled into Michigan's Kalamazoo River following a pipeline rupture in 2010.
Trustees of the National Resource Damage Assessment group--which includes state and federal agencies--has repeatedly requested that the Canada based company help pay for two needed reviews of the vegetation and recreational areas affected by the spill.
However, the Detroit Free Press reports that Enbridge refused the requests on two occasions, in both June and October, saying enough data had already been collected.
"Absolutely not," said Stephanie Millsap, a trustee representative for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to Enbridge's claim.
"The trustees' goal is to ensure Enbridge adequately compensates the public for the injuries their oil spill caused, and potentially is still causing, to natural resources," Millsap wrote in an email to Detroit Free Press.
"The oil not only oiled the actual river itself but also many, many acres of floodplain habitat, as well," she said. The spill damaged roughly 40 miles along the fragile ecosystem, forced the closure of portions of the river until 2012, and has required a lengthy cleanup process that continues to this day.
"If spilled into the environment, oil produced from tar sands is just as damaging as oil produced by other means, as residents along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan learned in 2010. Cleanup of that oil spill is still under way nearly three years later. Surely, producers of oil from tar sands should help contribute to the costs of cleaning up these spills -- just like producers of other oil must do," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
A proposal for a cross-country pipeline by Keystone XL, which would carry the highly toxic and corrosive tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, remains an imminent possibility. On Friday, a draft of an environmental impact assessment, approved by the Obama administration, was released and quickly and came under fire from environmental groups over the assessment's blatant inadequacies.
_______________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.