Enbridge Works to Clean Up Oil Spill – Grand Marsh Wisconsin


B. McPherson
Crude oil is a complex substance that contains deadly toxins. 

In the news again is the pipeline company consortium Enbridge. Again we have a pipeline spouting a leak. This time about 1200 barrels of crude escaped into the environment. Enbridge is touting its fast reponse and is working hard to clean up the mess.

The company is trying to show that this toxic spill is of little environmental consequence.

“An image of the site posted on Enbridge’s website showed a patch of damp, blackened earth near a stand of trees about one-third the size of a football field. It found some oil on two small farm ponds, but said they did not connect to moving waterways and that drinking wells did not seem to be affected.” Edmonton Journal

Notice the waffle words. Gosh, why did the farms have ponds? – maybe as drinking water for their livestock, maybe for irrigation of their fields. If the black goop hit the ground, how do they know it won’t affect water wells.

That version of the truth contrasts sharply with an eye witness to the accident.

“The house right next to where the pipeline broke got covered with oil,” said Patrick Swadish, who lives just about a mile northwest of the spill site in a rural area of mostly farmland about 80 miles north of the college town of Madison.” Edmonton Journal

While the spill may seem minor to Enbridge executives, it is catastrophic to those forced to accept oil pipelines through their property. You and I know that the toxic oil covering that home means that it will never be safe again to live in.

Enbridge and their partners are working hand in glove with the Canadian government to ram a double pipeline through British Columbia to the sea. The mounting resistance to such a scheme has people in BC talking separation. Environmental groups, labelled radicals and fringe by the natural resources minister have stood firm with the First Nations people in the province to oppose what will be an assault on the ocean and wilderness.

The Watershed Sentinel has compiled a list and totals of Enbridge pipeline breaches over the past ten years. It totals 132 715 barrels of oil leaked. This amounts to about half of what the Exxon Valdes leaked to destroy the life in Prince William Sound. Remember a valve failure that keeps the spilled oil within the fenced off compound, does not count as a spill.

If they build it, it will leak.


Location: High St, Grand Marsh, WI 53936, USA

Comments

  1. Unknown21 January 2013 at 20:57

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    ReplyDelete

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