More than 260,000 liters of oil from a pipeline spilled into Wisconsin soil, authorities said.
The problem was discovered Nov. 11 in Jefferson County, 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) west of Milwaukee, by an Enbridge Energy technician, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, citing a federal accident report.
Enbridge said the spill on its Line 6 was caused by the faulty connection of a pump transfer pipe at the Enbridge Cambridge station.
“The investigation and recommissioning began immediately following the discovery and is continuing. Removal of contaminated soil continues,” spokeswoman Juli Kellner said Saturday, adding that 60 percent of the spill had been removed by excavation.
Ms. Kellner added that the leak was immediately reported to regulators, although a federal pipeline safety agency’s report said the line likely leaked for an extended period of time.
“We are working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as cleanup and restoration continues,” Kellner said.
A company map shows Line 6 as a nearly 450-mile pipeline carrying crude oil from Superior, Wisconsin, to a terminal near Griffith, Indiana.
Critics noted that the leak was discovered the same week that Wisconsin regulators approved the first permits for Enbridge’s plan to move the aging Line 5 pipeline around the Bad River strip of the Chippewa reservation of Lake Superior. Opponents of the project said it would still threaten the region’s watershed and serve to perpetuate the use of fossil fuels.
Swiss
