Enbridge’s commitment to safety and environmental protection is looking a little shaky after the National Energy Board stopped work along a crude oil pipeline in Manitoba following an inspection that turned up “numerous non-compliances” around maintenance.
The NEB’s concerns are with the land around Line 3 near Cromer, Man., not the actual pipe or the $7.5-billion project to replace the half-century-old pipeline.
To be clear, no oil spilled and the pipeline remains in service.
Another company or another time and this incident would have scarcely resonated beyond the village on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary, but it’s Enbridge – the same company seeking the public’s support for its contentious Northern Gateway pipeline through northern B.C. It’s the same company that four years to the day of the NEB’s announcement in Manitoba had the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history when one of its pipelines ruptured and 20,000 barrels of oilsands crude flowed into a tributary of Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
At a pivotal time, Enbridge inexplicably got it wrong.
“We need to demonstrate an unshakable commitment to safety and environmental protection,” Al Monaco, Enbridge’s chief executive, said in a speech to the Montreal Board of Trade last September.
“We’re determined to be the industry leader in that regard. In our view, this isn’t a ‘nice to have’ it’s a price of entry and our most important priority.”
Earlier this month, an NEB inspector found numerous hazards when reviewing the Line 3 Replacement Project – the largest undertaking in the company’s history.
“It was observed multiple construction mitigation measures committed to by Enbridge in its Environmental Protection Plan (EPP) to conserve topsoil, control erosion and manage drainage were not implemented,” said the inspection report posted on the NEB website.
“This lack of EPP implementation has resulted in numerous non-compliances observed both on and offthe construction right-of-way causing environmental damage to wetlands and property damage to a substantial amount of agricultural land.
Erosion, lack of safe agricultural access, open excavations and open trench lines also pose a hazard.”
The 1,660-kilometre pipeline has carried crude between Alberta and Wisconsin for 46 years. The proposal to replace the aging line that carries 390,000 barrels a day – and increase its capacity to 760,000 barrels – was announced by Enbridge in March.
The NEB’s report relates entirely to maintenance on the existing line, Enbridge said.
Construction is on hold until Enbridge can assure the NEB its work won’t “cause further detriment to property, safety of the public and the environment.”
You can be assured the $46-billion energy giant will summon all of the resources necessary to resolve a needless issue as soon as possible.
Enbridge said flooding and heavy rainfall in Manitoba in June hampered its efforts to address concerns raised by a landowner. The company said Friday it has started work to address the NEB’s concerns and will complete an assessment of safety and environmental issues by Aug. 4. It said the work could be completed by the end of August provided there was sign-offfrom the regulator.
Some of the solutions are as simple as putting in signs and fencing. Enbridge said the maintenance work on the line is still expected to be completed on schedule by the end of 2014.
However, the issue goes beyond one incident of substandard landscaping and its impact on local wetlands and agricultural land.
The pipeline industry is under “tremendous scrutiny” – to quote Monaco’s Montreal speech – from regulators and anti-oil activists.
The latter were quick to point to the NEB’s ruling as reason why Enbridge should not be allowed to proceed with Northern Gateway or its planned reversal of Line 9 through Ontario that would bring oilsands crude to refineries in Quebec.
Both projects have regulatory approval but still face public opposition.
In the Montreal speech, Monaco pledged “we will do everything in our power to protect communities and the environment.”
He underlined the word everything, not me.
If that’s the lofty standard, even if it’s just a case of routine maintenance on a pipeline right of way, Enbridge fell well short of the CEO’s commitment in Manitoba.
Monaco has acknowledged the 2010 rupture in Michigan “shook our company.” The spill led one senior U.S. environmental official to blast the company as “Keystone Kops” and it prompted an overhaul processes and procedures on everything from spill response to preventive maintenance.
It’s still a work in progress.
The hazards the NEB found in Cromer – with Enbridge’s reputation and social license to operate so squarely at stake – should make him shudder.
Stephen Ewart is a Calgary Herald columnist [email protected]
