Inergy unit slams EPA for saying environmental assessment ‘inadequate’

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - A New York company has come out swinging against comments made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding a proposed gas pipeline it wants to build in north central Pennsylvania. The pipeline is the 39-mile-long Marc 1 Hub pipeline project.

Central New York Oil and Gas, which is a subsidiary of the Kansas City-based Inergy, wants to construct an interstate pipeline through Lycoming, Sullivan and Bradford counties, Pa.

Environmentalists say the pipeline will not only hurt ecosystems, but also speed up the development of an industry they think needs greater oversight. So their strategy is to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to do a more extensive environmental impact study. That would slow down the project, and slow down drilling.

The EPA says the initial FERC environmental assessment was inadequate and asks for a more thorough and time-consuming review. But a response filed by Central New York Oil and Gas questions why the EPA has taken the unusual step of weighing in on the pipeline fray when no federal funding is involved. CNYOG accuses the EPA of succumbing to environmental lobbyists.

Central New York Oil and Gas says the environmental law firm Earthjustice, which represents several local groups, has created a controversy where none exists. "…it is difficult to envision how any future pipeline project will be able to surmount opposition armed with a computer and a blog capable of generating tens of thousands of electronically generated, unsigned letters of opposition from individuals located literally anywhere on the planet," the company countered.

Double trouble: Latest Enbridge leak shuts down Line 6A in Illinois

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The odor of petroleum stretched for blocks in this Chicago suburb after a 34-inch Enbridge crude oil pipeline began to leak on Sept. 9.

Emergency workers and hazardous materials crews were called around 1 p.m. to the spill flowing steadily in an industrial area of Romeoville.

By 12:45 p.m., the pipe had been shut down and environmental cleanup crews began to arrive.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that the pipeline was spewing oil at a rate of between 200 and 600 barrels per hour until the ruptured line is depressurized.

The U.S. EPA issued a legal compliance order to Enbridge to stop all oil being released by noon on Sept. 13.

The compliance order indicates the crude oil discharged into a storm drain and flowed to a drainage ditch leading to a two-acre pond.
"The retention pond flows into an unnamed tributary which then flows approximately a half-mile into the Des Plaines River," the EPA said in its compliance order. "The discharged oil has flowed to the local wastewater treatment plant which has been forced to shut down."

The EPA also noted that rain was predicted for the weekend, which would increase the risk of oil entering the river.

Enbridge was given 30 days by the EPA to repair the pipe.

The U.S. EPA said it would require Enbridge to drain down at least half of the 16,000 barrels of oil that remained inside the stretch of the Illinois pipeline between valves, and gave the Calgary-based pipeline operator an Oct. 9 deadline to bring the area affected by the spill "back to normal."

Enbridge said it would take some time before normal shipments could resume on the line, which was transporting 459,000 b/d before the leak.

Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said later in the day that a clean-up crew has begun excavating the buried pipeline to drain down the remaining oil, Springer said. He said it was too early to know the magnitude of the spill or when the line could be repaired. More than 200 Enbridge responders and contractors were reportedly working on the cleanup and response.

Enbridge Energy Partners LP operates the Enbridge Lakehead System that transports Canadian crude oil to the U.S. T

The leaking 34-inch pipeline runs from Superior, Wis., to Griffith, Ind. The line transports about a third of the Canadian crude exported to the U.S.

What made the Romeoville accident doubly embarrassing for Enbridge was that crews were still cleaning up the company’s 19,500 bbl. Line 6B crude oil spill into the Kalamazoo River watershed in Michigan that began in late July.

Sources familiar with operations at BP Plc's 405,000 b/d Whiting, Ind., refinery, which is supplied by 6A, said the plant has crude in storage but declined to comment on how long those supplies would last if the outage continues.

In a press release, Romeoville officials said the village was notified of a liquid emanating from the ground at 719 Parkwood Ave. in the Romeoville Industrial Park. Village staff determined it was a petroleum-based substance coming from an underground Enbridge oil pipeline.

Officials said the village responded immediately, putting its emergency management plan into action. The Romeoville Fire Department enacted a second alarm hazardous materials incident plan.

Illegal Enbridge cleanup workers arrested in Texas; Rep. Schauer outraged

WINNIE, Texas - Illegal immigrants hired to work on the Enbridge oil spill in Calhoun County, Mich., were arrested by Chambers County, Texas, authorities on Sept. 1.
Acting on a tip about two chartered buses parked behind a bank, deputies captured 42 men later found to be illegals.
A report from setx.com (southeastern Texas) said around 40 of those on the buses ran and were able to escape, and those captured were taken to a holding facility in Houston.
Upon hearing about the incident, Congressman Mark Schauer issued a statement recalling the Enbridge pledge to “do the right thing.”
“Enbridge needs to live up to the commitment it made to our community, be a good neighbor, and start hiring qualified Michigan workers to clean up the spill,” said the Battle Creek Democrat. “Our community repeatedly asked the EPA and Enbridge to use local labor, and the fact that Enbridge allowed one of its contractors to hire illegal immigrants is appalling.”
Enbridge Inc. affiliate Enbridge Energy Partners is engaged in a massive cleanup operation along Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River, where an estimated million gallons of oil began spilling into the creek in Marshall Township in late July. The spill likely occurred on July 25, but went undetected until the next day.
Texas authorities said the buses had been chartered by Hallmark Industrial, a cleanup company subcontracting with Garner Environmental Services, subcontracting with Enbridge. Enbridge reportedly fired Hallmark earlier in the week.
Schauer released letters sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) calling for an investigation of allegations of undocumented workers being used to clean up the spill.

Enbridge contractor fired over safety, documentation issues

MARSHALL, Mich. - Enbridge Inc.'s main contractor on the efforts to
clean up the recent oil spill on the Kalamazoo River let go a subcontractor after allegations that it was using undocumented workers and was not abiding by federal safety standards.
Enbridge spokeswoman Terri Larson confirmed on Aug. 31 that Houston-based Garner Environmental Services terminated its agreement with Hallmark Industrial LLC, also of Texas, on Aug. 30 after an Aug. 30 report in the Michigan Messenger about the undocumented workers and safety issues.
The report said that hundreds of Hallmark workers were undocumented and were working in unsafe conditions, working 12 to 14 hour shifts, seven days a week, and getting paid in cash.
"They made that decision independently," Larson said of Garner, noting that Enbridge has "no reason to be concerned" about Garner's ability to perform the cleanup work, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told Enbridge must be wrapped up by Sept. 27.
Photos of the worksite provided by the Messenger, an online news and public policy website, to the EPA prompted the agency to contact Enbridge to make sure the company was following all safety regulations, said Mark Durno, the EPA's deputy incident commander for the spill response.
In some of the photos, workers were seen in so-called "clean zones" wearing oil-covered protective gear. In others, workers wearing the same oil-contaminated gear were seen next to food and water.
Enbridge has complied with an EPA order to re-educate its workers and those employed by its contractors on safety issues, Durno said.

EPA plays ‘environmental justice’ card against Keystone XL

HOUSTON, Texas - A proposed pipeline that would ferry Canadian crude oil to Texas refineries has run afoul of the recharged federal push to protect minorities and the poor from an overburden of pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the plan for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline doesn't evaluate the potential health impacts on Port Arthur, Texas, where one fork of the pipeline will end.
The criticism reflects new priorities at the EPA under administrator Lisa Jackson, who has intensified its quest for “environmental justice,” a movement rooted in the idea that minorities and the poor bear an unfair share of society's most toxic institutions.

Refiners scramble for crude as ruptured Enbridge line remains down

CALGARY, Alta. - Refineries in the U.S. upper Midwest and southern Canada were scrambling on Aug. 4 to secure alternative crude supplies as Enbridge Inc. was reworking some of its cleanup plans for the company's Line 6B rupture in Michigan.
The pipeline, which is operated by affiliate Enbridge Pipeline Partners, LP, ruptured on July 25, spilling an estimated 19,500 barrels of dilbit (tar sands bitumen plus diluent) into the Kalamazoo River. That cut 190,000 b/d of supply to the refineries. Nine days after the rupture, Enbridge still had no estimate for a restart time.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved many of Enbridge's work plans for health and safety, pipeline repair and waste treatment and disposal, but rejected its proposed sampling and analysis strategy for a second time.
Susan Hedman, the EPA's regional administrator, gave no specific reasons for send it back, saying there were numerous aspects of the complex plan that required attention.
Line 6B, serves refineries in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and southern Ontario, which combined process more than 700,000 b/d.
Refinery runs has been hampered only minimally so far, but all have said they had been forced to rearrange their plans to secure feedstock from other sources.

Former EPA official says Corexit, widely used in Gulf spill, kills dolphins, humans

EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman recently spoke on Democracy Now about BP’s claims regarding Corexit and the effects it is having on the Gulf of Mexico and the life forms that it comes in contact with.
He alleges that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is covering up the toxic effects that will result from using nearly two million gallons of the chemical dispersant since the start of the catastrophic oil spill in the U.S. Gulf.
Hugh Kaufman is a former U.S. Air Force captain. He joined the EPA in
1971. He helped write the laws that are on the federal books regarding the disposal, storage, handling and treatment of solid and hazardous waste. Though the EPA has approved the use of Corexit as an oil dispersant, Kaufman alleges that it is extremely toxic, dangerous and shows proof that the chemical was linked to many health problems when used in the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Kaufman also believes that BP used the chemical dispersant to dissolve as much oil as possible to prevent the public from ever truly knowing how vast the spill actually is.
Kaufman also alleges that people who are currently coming in contact with Corexit are suffering internal bleeding and hemorrhaging.
In a video clip, Kaufman says "...Consequently, we have people, wildlife… we have dolphins that are hemorrhaging. People who work near it are hemorrhaging internally. And that's what dispersants are supposed to do. EPA now is taking the position that they really don't know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It's very dangerous, and it's an… economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public."

Magellan agrees to pay $418,000 penalty over Oklahoma spill

TULSA, Okla. - Tulsa-based Magellan Pipeline Co. LP, a Williams Cos. spinoff, has agreed to pay a $418,000 civil penalty to resolve a lawsuit over a gasoline spill near Oologah, Okla.
Magellan agreed to the amount in a proposed consent decree filed in Tulsa federal court on Jan. 19, the same day attorneys for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit.
The agencies alleged that a pipeline associated with Magellan ruptured on Jan. 5, 2008, and caused the discharge of at least 1,075 barrels of gasoline into Four Mile Creek near Oologah. The complaint alleged that the discharge violated the Clean Water Act.
Under the terms of the pact, Magellan doesn't admit liability to the United States.