March 29, 2024

Top American investigator says we should have tough questions for Enbridge

A day after slamming Enbridge for its poor response to a 2010 spill in Michigan, the chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board says British Columbians should have some tough questions for the energy giant — which wants to build a multi billion dollar pipeline across Northern B.C.

Deborah Hersman says the biggest failures in Michigan were the human ones: Inadequate maintenance and a slow response once there was a spill.
 
The company claims its made changes since the michigan incident, but Hersman says, “We are not aware that they have revised their spill response plan yet.”

She adds the company has a poor record of learning from its mistakes.

“There have been a number of accident investigations. In fact, we have investigated, as well as our Candian counterparts, accidents involving Enbridge.  There are some findings there.  I think what concerned us the most is there were things that happened in the past with Enbridge that they hadn’t seemed to learn from.”

B.C.’s Enviornment Minister is calling the Michigan report “pretty damning.”

But Terry Lake adds the province still has the right to make arguments and present evidence to Canada’s National Energy Board, which is conducting hearings on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline.

CKNW Vancouver News

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