Learning the wrong pipeline lessons
The similarities are deeply troubling.
Last week, a contractor happened to be walking by Nexen’s Long Lake pipeline and discovered a spill of 31,000 barrels of tar sands oil. Five years ago today, a utility worker happened to be walking by Enbridge’s Line 6B near Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and discovered a spill of 27,000 barrels of tar sands oil.
The Nexen pipeline had been leaking for as long as two weeks before the spill was discovered. The Enbridge line leaked for 18 hours before discovery.
Both companies claimed to have state of the art “fail-safe” spill detection systems. In both cases, the fail-safes failed.
This article originally appeared on the Georgia Straight, read the full story here
The article was also published in several newspapers including Kamloops This Week and the Langley Times
