Calhoun officials: Enbridge was on site of leak Sunday night

MARSHALL TWP — Two county elected officials say an employee of Enbridge Energy was on site on Sunday night, July 25, after the first reports of a million gallon oil spill came into Calhoun county’s 9-1-1 system.

Calhoun County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Rae and Marshall Township Clerk Cynthia Sink confirm that Marshall Township fire officials spoke and met with an Enbridge Energy employee Sunday night.

“They spoke to somebody,” says Sink. “The problem is they don’t have a description or name for this Enbridge employee.”

She confirmed that the Enbridge employee was at the site speaking with Marshall Township Fire officials.

Initial 9-1-1 calls came from downtown Marshall indicating a strong smell of “natural gas.” City of Marshall fire officials were dispatched on that 9:26 call, but found nothing. A second call was made shortly after that, and City of Marshall fire firefighters were also dispatched to investigate the “gas smell.” They determined the source of the smell was in Marshall Township, and called that fire department in at 11 p.m.

Durk Dunham, emergency management coordinator/director for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department, said on Tuesday he was notified of the spill situation at 12:30 a.m. Monday July 26, 10 hours before Enbridge officials say they confirmed a problem.

“There is a report, if you go to Marshall Township you can request it,” Rae said. “It shows Enbridge had an employee there Sunday night.”

The written report of the fire department’s contact with the Enbridge employee could not be released, Sink said, because it has been sealed by order of the National Transportation Safety Board as part of their ongoing investigation.

Enbridge has insisted that it first became aware of the potential leak at 10:30 am EST on Monday, July 26. If it is true that they had an employee on the site and aware of the leak up to 12 hours earlier, then the obvious question is: Why wasn’t the flow of oil stopped earlier? And how much oil flowed into the river between the time the Enbridge employee learned of it on Sunday night and the time the pipeline was shut down on Monday?

Stay tuned as we try to answer those questions.

Update: Enbridge spokeswoman Terri Larson denies this claim by the two elected officials, telling the Michigan Messenger, “It’s completely unsubstantiated. Our management has interviewed every employee in the area and no one was there.”