MADISON VOICES: Dane County seeks insurance against Enbridge 61 pipeline spill

Carousel BayrdEnbridge Energy, an international oil pipeline company, wants to expand a pipeline running through Dane County to create the highest capacity pipeline in the United States.  Enbridge’s Line 61 currently runs more than 400 miles through Wisconsin and Illinois, including 12 miles in northeastern Dane County.  It carries approximately 400,000 barrels of oil a day.  Enbridge seeks to to triple the pipeline’s speed, to 1.2 million barrels a day, making it the highest capacity pipeline in the United States. (For reference, the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would move at 830,000 barrels a day if approved.)

Enbridge has received approval to expand from every community Line 61 runs through, except Dane County.  While Dane County does not have authority to deny the permit simply because of the request for expansion, the county’s zoning committee is considering requiring Enbridge to increase its liability insurance to cover any possible spill.  

In 2010, an Enbridge pipeline in Michigan broke, resulting in what became largest inland spill in U.S. history.  The break took more than 17 hours to stop, causing 800,000 gallons of tar sands oil to spill.  The spill impacted lakes, drinking water, and soil, and caused thousands of people to evacuate their homes.  Enbridge spent more than $1.1 billion cleaning up the spill. However, Enbridge only carried $600 million in insurance protection at the time of the spill, resulting in Enbridge paying $500,000 million out-of-pocket to cover the damage.

Enbridge’s expansion request has garnered national attention, including a story in the New York Times depicting Enbridge as Goliath against Dane County’s David.  

On Jan. 20, I spoke with Dane County Board Supervisor Patrick Miles, chair of Dane County’s Zoning and Land Regulation Committee, the committee considering the pending permit. 

 LISTEN: Carousel Bayrd interviews Supervisor Tim Miles on WORT's A PUBLIC AFFAIR (Jan. 20) 

Miles expressed concern with the cost and impacts of the Michigan spill as a reason why the committee was considering conditions for the permit.  If the higher-capacity Line 61 had a break, more than 2 million gallons would be spilled in an hour. 

"Just to put that in some context, the volume that we're talking about here, in an hours time, if there is a spill, there would be more than 2 million gallons at that rate. That's a lot of oil.  Over 2 million gallons in 1 hour compared to 800,000 over 17 hours in Michigan,” he said. "Tripling the capacity is in a sense tripling the risk.”

It is the “tripling the risk” that is triggering the desire for Enbridge to increase its liability insurance.

"That risk brings the question: If there is a spill, what can be done to clean it up,” Miles said. “And we want to make sure that Enbridge has capacity to take whatever corrective action they need to do."

If there was a pipeline spill in Dane County, and the cost was more than Enbridge could cover either through its insurance or through additional out of pocket expenses from the company, the taxpayers of Wisconsin would be left with the bill.  

Since the 2010 pipeline break in Michigan, Enbridge has increased its insurance coverage to $700,000 million.  But that is still $400,000 less than the cost of the Michigan spill, and any break in Line 61 would be estimated to cost more than the Michigan spill due to the higher volume.

"They [Enbridge] seem to be a pretty financially sound company.  But, if they were to go belly up, if they didn't have the resources, if there are multiple incidents, or for whatever reason the resources weren't available to clean it up, providing this added insurance would give us some assurance that there would be some financial resources available for clean up,” Miles said.

Dane County’s Zoning and Land Regulation Committee held a public hearing on the permit request in October and is now in the process of gathering and reviewing information from Enbridge.  It is expected to make a final decision in February or March of 2015.

--Carousel Bayrd is Vice Chair of the Dane County Board and hosts "A Public Affair" Tuesdays at noon on WORT (89.9 FM). She lives in Madison with her husband and two children.