Oil group cleans spill in Clark County

50,000 gallons from Enbridge cover field

By THOMAS CONTENT
tcontent@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Jan. 3, 2007

The company planning to build a crude oil pipeline across Wisconsin is on the scene of an oil spill that sent more than 50,000 gallons of crude oil onto a farmer's field in Clark County.

Enbridge Inc. spokesman Larry Springer said as many as 40 workers were at the site Wednesday working to remove oil and tainted soil from the field in the Town of Curtiss, 43 miles west of Wausau.

The spill was detected Monday, when Enbridge noticed a drop in pressure along its pipeline, which carries crude oil from Canada through Minnesota and Wisconsin to Chicago and then Detroit. Crews said they detected a 4-foot long split on the seam of the pipe, which was put into service in 1998.

The cause of the split and spill remains under investigation, and Enbridge plans to conduct tests on the damaged piece of pipe. A new piece of pipe was installed Tuesday, and the pipe was preparing to resume carrying crude oil by Wednesday evening or today, Springer said.

The line, a 24-inch diameter pipe that is one of two run by Enbridge through Wisconsin, carries about 300,000 barrels of oil a day, he said. The state Department of Natural Resources is on site monitoring cleanup.

"There is oil penetrated about an inch into the ground," DNR spokesman Dave Weitz said. "They are moving quite rapidly to clean that surface up."

The spill covered about one-half acre of the field, and the environmental damage is marginal, he said.

Denise Hamsher, an Enbridge spokeswoman, said the last rupture of one of Enbridge's major pipelines occurred four years ago. The company transports 63 million gallons a day, she said.

Enbridge is preparing to start construction on a 321-mile pipeline that would cross Wisconsin, including on the same property where the spill occurred this week. That project received approval from the state Department of Natural Resources in November.

The spill comes less than two weeks after environmental groups sued to block construction of the pipeline, saying the DNR should have done a more exhaustive analysis and citing a track record of spills.

In Wisconsin, Enbridge has been responsible for seven spills since 1999, the DNR said. Six of the spills were at the company terminal in Superior and were largely contained, the agency said.

Springer said the company does not foresee the spill affecting the company's plans to build the new pipeline.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.