Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Shuster,
On Monday, July 26 at approximately 1:30 p.m., I was boarding a flight from Detroit to Washington for votes in the House of Representatives that evening.
It was at almost that exact time that a company few in Calhoun County, Michigan, had ever heard of -- Enbridge Energy Partners -- reported an oil spill to the National Response Center into Talmadge Creek, just south of the city of Marshall.
Starting about 9:30 p.m. the night before, on Sunday, July 25, residents in the Talmadge Creek area began calling 911, complaining of a gas odor.
As we'll learn here today, this was just after a shift change in the Enbridge control room in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada -- the same control room that experienced 13 hours of alarms telling them that something was going on in Line 6B of Enbridge's Lakehead Pipeline.
After a brief meeting with the President -- in which he committed all necessary resources to deal with the largest oil spill ever in the Midwest -- I flew home to see for myself.
Jill Slaght of my staff, a Marshall resident, was there on the job and my team and I have had our sleeves rolled up and have been working to help affected people ever since.
I saw the unimaginable. My community lost its innocence that night and in subsequent days. One million gallons of heavy crude oil poured into Talmadge Creek and then into the Kalamazoo River, a tributary to Lake Michigan.
I never would have imagined that just after holding hearings on the BP Deep Water Horizon spill and strengthening the Oil Pollution Act, my community would be dealing with images of oil-coated geese and a river flowing black with oil.
The ironies are too many to cite. Just 10 days before, an executive of Enbridge Energy Partners testified before this very committee on its integrity management system and stated that its control room could detect the smallest of leaks. As we learned, it failed. Also on that day, July 15, 2010, Enbridge requested to the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that it be allowed to operate Line 6B at reduced pressure for another two and a half years while it considered repairs to identified defects to this pipeline. And this is on top of the one year that Enbridge had already been operating under reduced pressure while it considered what to do about known defects in its pipeline.
As a result of in-line inspections since 2007, Enbridge knew of 390 defects but only saw fit to repair 61 of them -- leaving 329 unrepaired.
The section of pipeline that ruptured wasn't even one of these. I learned from documentation provided by Enbridge to PHMSA two weeks ago that the section of pipeline that tore had a defect, but the defect didn't reach PHMSA's threshold requiring repair.
But isn't it Enbridge's responsibility to make sure that its pipeline is safe and that people won't be injured and the environment won't be impacted?
Enbridge has a lot of experience in this area -- with 163 pipeline spills since 2002, 83 of them on the Lakehead System.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing today. It's important to the people in Michigan, where 286 miles of this pipeline lay.
This hearing is ultimately about people -- people whose lives have been changed, for some, permanently and irrevocably. We hold this hearing for Mitchell Price who couldn't be here but who wrote to me about his property along the Kalamazoo River that's been spoiled. And it's for Bobbie and Burita Lewis who feel violated and whose lives have been turned upside down.
This is also a hearing about safety.
Our current laws and regulations are not working, as we have seen with this spill and others.
The Enbridge pipeline spill is just one example of the need for further corporate responsibility and public oversight. There were three other incidents just in the past week, two from Enbridge lines.
Public health was compromised by Enbridge's spill, with over 60 homes being evacuated. Area medical centers have reported over 120 visits related to illnesses from the oil spill.
Over 1,000 oiled wildlife have been collected thus far. And the spill area is still today under advisories for drinking water, recreation, and fish consumption.
We do not yet know what the long term impacts of this spill will be on the health, safety, environment, and economy of these communities in my district. According to the National Institute of Health, there has never been a study of what the effects are of the high exposure levels of benzene and related odors, like the levels we saw in this spill, to children and infants. The testing has only been done in adults.
Additionally, I am very concerned before this pipeline is restarted that it can operate safely. Given the recent releases in New York and Illinois, and the over 80 release incidents reported by Enbridge since 2002, I do not think it can.
Every inch of this pipeline should be inspected and every defect fixed before eight million gallons per day of heavy crude oil begins to flow through it again.
From the very beginning there have been questions surrounding when this rupture and oil spill occurred.
Again, Enbridge stated in testimony to our committee's Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials on July 15, 2010 that their response time for release incidents "can be almost instantaneous, and our large peaks are typically detected by our control center personnel."
I am concerned about Enbridge's statement to the committee about their equipment and personnel being able to detect leaks almost instantaneously especially after this spill.
Enbridge's control room in Alberta started experiencing alarms the day before the spill was reported to federal officials at 5:58 p.m. on the 6B line. Additionally, reports of odors started coming into local emergency officials on that evening at 9:26 p.m.
At 11:18 a.m. on July 26th, Consumers Energy reported to Enbridge that there was oil in the Talmadge Creek. The leak was confirmed by Enbridge personnel at 11:45 a.m. and they reported the spill to the National Response Center at 1:29 p.m., nearly two hours after confirmed discovery by their personnel.
Thirteen hours of alarms in their control center in Alberta, and they still were unable to discover and report the leak near Talmadge Creek in their pipeline.
Current regulation requires pipeline operators to report incidents immediately upon discovery of a release. In 2002, PHMSA determined "immediately" to be defined as between one and two hours of discovery. Enbridge documentation indicates that reporting must be provided within two hours of discovery.
I introduced the Corporate Liability and Emergency Accident Notification Act (the CLEAN Act) to clarify the term "immediately" in the reporting requirements of a spill incident to the National Response Center to be no more than one hour after the discovery of an incident. My bill will also increase the current fines if a spill is not reported "immediately" to the National Response Center. It should not take more than an hour to report a spill release after it has been confirmed. In an accident like this with people and the environment at risk, every second counts.
Mr. Chairman, under current regulations, railroad employees can lose their license to operate a train for exceeding the speed limit by ten miles per hour, failing to make a brake test, or occupying a main track without permission. Truck drivers can lose their commercial drivers license for speeding, making an erratic lane change, following another vehicle too closely or even bottoming out the undercarriage at a highway-rail grade crossing. Those are serious offenses -- don't get me wrong -- but a company that has the longest petroleum pipeline in the world can spill one million gallons of crude oil, devastating a local community and sensitive environmental areas, and they do not have to fix all the anomalies in their pipeline? That concerns me to no end.
My concerns do not only extend to Enbridge's pipeline safety practices but also the company's practices with the spill claims process and labor practices at the oil spill clean-up site.
I have heard from citizens who were asked to sign waivers releasing Enbridge from any other liability in exchange for an air purifier -- that, by the way, offers no protection from benzene.
Enbridge also had citizens sign waivers releasing all of their medical history to the company in return for medical treatment. This is outrageous and is a clear HIPAA violation. People should not have to sign away their rights to receive medical treatment or be reimbursed for a legitimate claim.
I also heard numerous concerns from community members whose businesses have been negatively impacted by the spill. Some citizens reported banks redlining people from buying their homes because it was in the vicinity of the oil spill. And numerous citizens are still concerned with the short-and long-term health impacts from the spill.
Additionally, there have been news reports of labor and worker safety issues with one of Enbridge's contractors, Hallmark Industrial LLC. One newspaper article reported Hallmark Industrial using illegal, undocumented workers to help work on the spill clean-up site. The article also reports that there were unsafe working conditions and workers who were not qualified with the proper certifications working on the spill clean-up.
This goes beyond media reports. Illegal workers bused in by an Enbridge subcontractor from Texas were actually arrested upon return to Texas.
This is wrong and illegal. There are many qualified workers in my district that would love to have the opportunity to work on the oil spill clean-up. As a result of this article, Chairman Oberstar and I have asked for an investigation surrounding the labor, immigration, and safety issues involving Enbridge and Hallmark Industrial.
Just a few days ago, the same newspaper reported Enbridge was notified on August 23rd about the issues surrounding one of their contractors. Interestingly, Enbridge's spokesperson said that they examine the documents of all workers.
We need to look closely at all of the issues in regard to Enbridge's business practices and the oil spill.
Mr. Chairman, today we will hear from citizens in my district on how this spill has impacted their families, businesses, and daily lives and how, up until they were on the list to testify here today, Enbridge denied some or all of their claims for restitution. Enbridge has offered most of the witnesses here settlements over the last 72 hours. Mr. Chairman, perhaps we should hold three additional hearings so the other citizens from my district impacted in this spill that have been denied claims by Enbridge will too be able to get the damage reimbursement they deserve.
The citizens in my district deserve to be treated fairly by the company and to be reimbursed for all of the damages they have already incurred and will continue to incur in the future.
They deserve to have Enbridge held accountable for this oil spill and the safety of this pipeline.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing and allowing the citizens of my district to be able to voice their concerns. I would like to thank all of the people from my district for taking the time out of their busy schedules to come and testify today before our committee.
Footage from the hearing will be archived at http://transportation.house.gov