Sen. Al Franken is calling for a full federal investigation into this week's Enbridge Energy oil spill in Michigan, which sent more than 1 million gallons of oil into a river that empties into Lake Michigan.
In a letter to Cynthia Quarterman, who leads the Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration, Franken called for a probe to determine the cause of the break and the company's safety history and urged that strong steps be taken to prevent similar incidents.
He called Enbridge Energy Associates, the owner of the pipeline, "neglectful" and its safety record "unacceptable." Enbridge is based in Houston and has an office in Superior.
But Denise Hamsher, the company's director of project planning, said a federal investigation already is under way.
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"That's very routine in a significant incident like this," she said. "The Department of Transportation is on site and has been from the very beginning."
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is part of the transportation department. As the key regulator, the department would have been notified immediately and soon be on site, Hamsher said.
"The oil has had a devastating impact on the community and ecosystems in and along the Kalamazoo River," Franken wrote in his letter to Quarterman. "Should it reach the Great Lakes, the impacts could be catastrophic."
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, critical of attempts to contain the oil flow this week, also warned of tragedy if the oil reaches Lake Michigan.
However, Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said Friday that the spill has been contained one or two counties from Lake Michigan.
"We have built a dike around the release site in a boggy area," he said. "Any remaining oil coming out would be retained."
He said the company is cooperating fully with the investigation and will continue to do so.
"An aggressive round-the-clock cleanup with hundreds is under way," Springer said, noting that state and federal agencies are overseeing the cleanup. "We're making good progress."
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As with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Franken wrote that Enbridge should be held fully accountable for all damages. He claimed Enbridge has a history of accidents that raise questions about its pipeline safety as well as the effectiveness of federal regulations and oversight.
In 2007, an Enbridge pipeline explosion near Clearbrook, Minn., killed two Superior-based workers. Also in 2007, 200,000 gallons of crude oil were released in northern Wisconsin in two spills during pipeline expansion work. In 2003, two spills released nearly 20,000 gallons of crude oil onto the Nemadji River in northern Wisconsin as an Enbridge pipeline was being expanded.
The pipeline that goes through Duluth and Superior is part of a system that stretches from Alberta to Illinois and beyond.
Considering the pipeline is the longest pipeline in the world, delivering 12 percent of the country's imported oil, Enbridge's safety record is good, Springer said, adding "but admittedly, not to our goal of zero incidents."
