Enbridge Pipelines has managed to contain the leak from its pipeline and has limited it to a local lake and river in Michigan. The company says that it should not present a threat to the Great Lakes.
"We do not anticipate that Lake Michigan is at risk," Ralph Dollhopf, the on-scene coordinator for the EPA told reporters Thursday.
A total of almost 4 million barrels of oil has spilled from the Enbridge pipeline, which carries about 30 million litres of oil daily from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ont. It is much smaller than the leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but still significant. BP spilt a total of about 800 million litres of oil. Much like BP, Enbridge says it is committed to cleaning up anything and everything" that the oil touches outside the pipeline."
Hundreds of workers are now working on scooping away the oil. About 3,600 metres of containment and absorption boom are being laid with the help of 14 skimmers vessels.
"What happens after that is they have these giant vacuums," says Sachedina. "So, the oil is contained, it's sucked into a giant vacuum, and then the oil is put into a tanker truck and disposed of."
However, the nightmare for Enbridge is just starting. U.S. officials claim Enbridge was warned about corrosion in the 41-year-old pipeline back in January! There will, therefore, undoubtedly be some liability and negligence issues for the company to contend with.
The stock, however, is off from $52 to $48 on the news of the disaster. Not nearly enough to warrant making an investment on this news. Surely, Enbridge will face a number of legal hurdles and future development delays with the tarnished image caused by the spill. Luckily for them, people are still thinking of BP's negligence to worry too much about Enbridge.
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