Public radio from Western Michigan University 102.1 NPR News | 89.9 Classical WMUK
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Enbridge: $1 billion spent on oil spill cleanup

Paul Sancya
/
AP Photo

Enbridge Energy has spent over a billion dollars so far cleaning up the Kalamazoo River oil spill in 2010. That's according to the Gongwer News Service.

In the filing, Enbridge admits that the disaster was "orders of magnitude" larger than previous spills in documents filed for a pipeline project in Minnesota. Gongwer says Enbridge reports that clean up so far has recovered about 18,000 of the estimated 20,000 barrels of oil that wound up in the river in July 2010. The spill began when a pipeline ruptured near Marshall.  According to Enbridge, the company has only had four pipeline leaks since 2008 that released more than a thousand barrels of oil. More than 7,500 barrels spilled in Romeoville, Illinois, two months after the Michigan rupture, which was the biggest in U.S. history.

Enbridge has also paid $3.7 billion in state and federal fines.

According to Gongwer, the Minnesota project will eventually be connected to Enbridge's new 6B pipeline under construction in southern Michigan to replace the one that failed in 2010.

Andy Robins has been WMUK's News Director since 1998 and a broadcast journalist for over 24 years. He joined WMUK's staff in 1985. Under his direction, WMUK has received numerous awards for news reporting.