2nd Enbridge Spill Fuels Outcry

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. -  Reaction has been swift to news of a second oil spill in the U.S. Midwest from a pipeline owned by Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says emergency response personnel were deployed to Romeoville, Illinois on Thursday afternoon.

U.S. EPA Regional Administrator, Susan Hedman says, "EPA, state and local agencies mobilized immediately to respond to this incident and we are taking steps to minimize damage to the environment and to protect the DesPlaines River.

Initial assessments indicate that crude oil from the pipeline flowed through sewers into a retention pond.  On Thursday, the EPA believed the pipeline had been shutdown, but the agency reported yesterday that the release of oil has not stopped.  At a news conference at the EPA's command post near the spill yesterday, Hedman outlined deadlines that Enbridge must meet to stop the spill and clean up contamination.

She says, "(The) EPA is still actively managing the clean up of an Enbridge pipeline spill that caused major damage to the Kalamazoo River in late July."

In a news release from the Nadleh Whut'en Territory in Fraser Lake, Chief Larry Nooski says, "This most recent pipeline leak is the nail in the coffin for the Northern Gateway Pipelines project."

"This is exactly what we've been saying to everyone.  We don't want our children to have to clean up our mess," he says.  "We want relevant and appropriate development in our territories.  Enbridge and the government of Canada do not have the consent of the indigenous title holders to the land, therefore there will be no pipeline."

Earlier this week, hundreds took to the streets of Prince George for a protest march opposing the proposed pipeline, as the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency held a Joint Review Panel pre-hearing on the project.

"Enbridge is busted.  We stand united, shaking our heads at the new oil spill in Illinois," says Chief Karen Ogen of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

Ogen says, "It's sad, really, really, really sad.  I hope more people in northern B.C. see the light and join us in building a strong local economy that doesn't include destroying the environment we all depend on."

The release from five Carrier Sekani Communities points out this most recent pipeline leak occurred in an urbanized, industrial area surrounded by emergency services, while the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines "would be buried under one-metre of dirt, cross 700 water courses and transect two mountainous sections, all of which are in an extremely rugged and rural region."

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