Canada's Enbridge Fined for 2010 Michigan, Illinois Oil Spills

The U.S. government on Wednesday ordered Enbridge Inc. to pay more than $177 million in fines and settlement costs for a pair of oil spills in Illinois and Michigan six years ago, including one that triggered one of the costliest cleanups of a U.S. onshore spill ever.

The settlement deal, which was announced by the U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, includes a $62 million fine and an agreement by Enbridge to spend $110 million on spill-prevention measures in the Great Lakes region. It also includes a separate $5.4 million payment to cover cleanup costs incurred by the government, the Justice Department said.

"This settlement will make the delivery of our nation's energy resources safer and more environmentally responsible," John Cruden, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.

Enbridge said it would accept the agreement and pledged to implement enhanced pipeline-safety measures.

The agreement between the U.S. and Enbridge settles government action stemming from leaks in the Calgary, Alberta-based company's Line 6A and 6B pipelines that carry oil from Canada into the U.S. The first incident occurred near Marshall, Mich., in July 2010, and spilled 20,000 barrels of oil into a creek that contaminated more than 20 miles of the Kalamazoo River in south-central Michigan.

That spill was caused by missteps on the part of Enbridge, including ignoring cracks in the pipeline, and lax oversight by regulators, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a July 2012 report. The resulting cleanup cost totaled more than $800 million, the safety board said, a record amount for an onshore spill.

The second spill took place in September 2010 near Romeoville, Ill., and involved at least 6,437 barrels of oil that contaminated a tributary to the Des Plaines River.

"The learnings from our experience have made us a better company and the way we think about safety has changed," Al Monaco, Enbridge's chief executive, said in a statement. "Over the past six years, we've intensified our focus on the safety and integrity of our systems," he said.

Write to Chester Dawson at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2016 12:45 ET (16:45 GMT)

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