MARSHALL, MICHIGAN--(Marketwire - Sept. 23, 2010) -
Excerpt from Joint News Conference, 3 p.m. Eastern Time, September 23, 2010
Marshall, Michigan.
Patrick Daniel, President & CEO, Enbridge Inc.
The clean-up along Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River continues to progress very well. We're focused on reaching Monday's deadline for primary clean-up of the source site, the creek and the river, and we fully expect that we're going to meet that deadline.
As part of the natural progression from primary clean-up operations to long-term remediation and restoration, the number of response workers has decreased this week as indicated. These workers were focused primarily on the clean-up of the creek, river and shorelines and I want to thank them very much for their significant contributions.
Having peaked at one point at approximately 2,000 workers, we still expect to employ over 500 workers through October. So, even though we've decreased, we still have significant employment through the month of October.
We've now begun focusing on the collection of residual submerged oil in nine silty locations. We're using two primary techniques to remove the oil, including dredging at some areas and mechanical aeration at others. Aeration simply means pumping air into the contaminated area so that the oil rises to the surface to be collected.
With regard to homes, we have now purchased eight homes. We have another 14 homes in the final stages of purchase and again this effort is ongoing and it's in support of the local real estate market.
With PHMSA's approval of our restart plan yesterday we will now execute that plan in preparation for a safe return to service for Line 6B. The restart will happen only once we receive PHMSA's final go-ahead. The entire process will occur according to the direction and under the oversight of the Regulator of course.
Enbridge now anticipates that we'll meet the restart plan's requirements and be in a position to return 6B to service the morning of Monday September 27th, subject again to receipt of final PHMSA approval.
Also, as part of our integrity validation and remedial action plan, to be submitted to the Office of Pipeline Safety by September 26th, Enbridge will present our plans to replace approximately 3,800 feet of pipe under the St. Clair River. Subject to regulatory permits and a successful horizontal bore, the new pipeline segment should be installed and operational by mid-year of 2011.
Enbridge has launched a website to provide updates and further information about the Company's response to the leak on the 6B pipeline near Marshall, Michigan. The URL for the website is response.enbridgeus.com.
For more information please contact:
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Toll-free Media Line: (888) 992-0997
or
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Investment Relations
Douglas Montgomery
Toll-free: (866) EEP INFO or (866) 337-4636