ROMEOVILLE, ILLINOIS--(Marketwire - Sept. 16, 2010) -
Excerpt from Joint News Conference, 2 p.m. Eastern Time, September 16, 2010
Romeoville, Illinois.
Art Meyer, Senior Vice President, Enbridge
Enbridge is treating this leak and the safety of the public and personnel working onsite as a top priority and we will do everything we can to minimize the impact on the environment, neighboring businesses and neighboring communities.
We continue to focus on three main objectives: clean-up of the leak, ensuring that we address the needs of those businesses impacted, and the safe and efficient re-start of the line to meet public need.
With regard to progress, work at the site itself is progressing well. The drainage ditch and retention pond are looking much improved and crews are working on now removing the impacted vegetation and soil. Digging out of the main ditch and lateral ditch has been completed. And for the information of those on the phone, the ditch is a little over 600 feet long. It runs into a retention pond and then we have another ditch of about 400 feet before we reach a road, so we're dealing with about 1,000 feet of ditch or something just over that.
Retention pond skimming continues, at this point primarily addressing some remaining oil sheen only, and virtually all of the oil has been recovered. The drainage ditch past the retention pond has been blocked and that was accomplished through a dam that we put in. Sampling shows no detection of hydrocarbons past that dyke.
With regard to the sewage treatment plant, we are constructing temporary storage adjacent to the plant. There we will take the sewage water, move it through carbon filters, remove hydrocarbons and then transport it for disposal.
The work will continue until all the oil spilled has been cleaned up to the satisfaction of the EPA, the Village of Romeoville and other agencies and regulatory authorities involved. The restoration of the spill area will continue based on a plan that will be reviewed by the regulatory bodies until we are able to return the affected area to its pre-spill condition.
Air quality monitoring has continued and to date there are no detectible levels of benzene or volatile organic compounds in the community, and that is outside the areas where oil was spilled, but even there (within the area where the oil was spilled) detection levels are dropping rapidly.
With regard to businesses, we continue to work with local businesses in the immediate area to minimize impacts. All but two were back to work at their business premises as of yesterday and the other two have been temporarily relocated.
We continue to meet with business owners and managers to discuss the impact of the spill and we will ensure that all affected businesses are fairly compensated.
On re-start: As we noted yesterday, repairs to line 6A were completed. We are preparing to safely return the pipeline to service tomorrow morning, Friday September 17th.
I extend our utmost appreciation to Romeoville Emergency Responders and to State and Federal Regulatory Agencies for their professional, diligent and supportive actions.
Enbridge has launched a website to provide updates and further information about the Company's response to the leak on the 6A pipeline near Romeoville, Illinois. The URL for the website is romeoville.enbridgeus.com.
For more information please contact:
nbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Toll-free Media Line: (888) 992-0997
or
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Douglas Montgomery
Investment Relations
Toll-free: (866) EEP INFO or (866) 337-4636