Enbridge reports 265,000-litre oil spill in Wisconsin

EDMONTON — Calgary-based pipeline giant Enbridge says it has cleaned up about 60 per cent of a nearly 265,000-litre oil spill in Wisconsin that was discovered last month.

Enbridge says the spill was discovered by an employee conducting a visual inspection of its Line 6 at the Enbridge Cambridge Station, west of Milwaukee, on Nov. 11.

Line 6 is a nearly 750-kilometre pipeline carrying crude oil from Superior, Wis., to a terminal near Griffith, Ind.

Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner says state and federal regulators were immediately notified after the spill was discovered.

Kellner adds the faulty pump transfer pipe that caused it has been repaired.

Enbridge has recovered about 60 per cent of the spill by excavating within the pump station itself.

“Removal of impacted soils is continuing,” Kellner said.

“We are working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as cleanup and restoration proceed.”

The spill was discovered during 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 Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation in northwestern Wisconsin.

Last week, the tribe filed a lawsuit in Ashland County asking a judge to reverse state construction permits.

The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa says in the lawsuit the approval of the permits is illegal because Enbridge didn’t show how it would minimize harm to state waterways and wetlands.

Enbridge officials have said the reroute proposal has gone through rigorous reviews and studies, and that the new challenges will delay an economic boost and the creation of more than 700 jobs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2024.

-With files from The Associated Press.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press