The Enbridge Line 4 pipeline, a 796,000 barrels per day pipeline from Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin, has spilled 1,350 barrels of oil at a pumping station in Regina.
Council of Canadians Regina chapter activist Jim Elliott says, “It only took 2 minutes and 26 seconds to spill 1,350 barrels of oil in the latest spill in Regina.”
Enbridge’s Line 1 to 4 pipelines converge at Lake Superior and from there join with Line 5 which goes around the northern shore of Lake Michigan (and under the Straits of Mackinac) and Line 6 which goes around the southern shore of the lake.
It is not clear at this point how long Line 4 will be shut down because of the leak which is now under investigation. Enbridge said in June that it was building a connection between Line 4 and Line 67 so that barrels could be diverted to Line 67 during a prolonged disruption. Line 67 also runs from Alberta to Wisconsin.
Elliott also comments, “Another day, another spill. When will this stop? This is the second spill on this line. There was a spill on January 19, 2014 at a pump station in the south east part of the city, just 2 kilometres south of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology campus.” For more on that 125-barrel spill, please click here.
This may not be the last oil spill experienced by the city of Regina. It is also on the route of the proposed 1.1 million barrels per day TransCanada Energy East pipeline which would run through the Harbour Landing subdivision in the southwest area of the city.
Enbridge is also the company behind the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would move 525,000 barrels per day of bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to Kitimat to then to be transported by supertankers on the Pacific Ocean to export markets. An Enbridge Line 6B pipeline spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan in July 2010 saw diluted bitumen sink in the Kalamazoo River. More than four years later and after $1 billion spent, submerged oil still remains in the river. Just last week Enbridge agreed to pay $6.8 million to settle a class action lawsuit against them for this spill.
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