UPDATE: EPA announces removal of ruptured oil pipeline ‘commencing’

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that the section of pipe which ruptured dumping an estimated one million gallons of crude oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River in Calhoun County last week is in the process of being removed from the ground.

“Extraction of the pipe at the leak site is commencing,” said Susan Hedman, EPA Region 5 director at the beginning of the daily 3 p.m. media briefing.

The pipe is owned by Enbridge Energy Partners and is part of the Lakehead system pipeline 6B.

The pipe was uncovered earlier this week, however because the pipe is situated in a marshy area which is saturated with crude oil, workers had to shore up the soil as they uncovered the pipe. An 140 foot length of the pipe will be cut out of the line and shipped to the National Transportation Safety Board labs in Washington, D.C.

Officials indicated that the marshy soil has been the cause of difficulty in extracting the pipe.

UPDATE: Officials from Enbridge Energy, which is overseeing the removal of their ruptured pipeline, said this afternoon in a press briefing they expect to have the section of pipe removed from the line by this evening. After that, said Steve Wuori, Enbridge VP for liquid pipelines, the section of pipe will be made available for as long as necessary for investigators from the various agencies to inspect. Once they get the OK, Enbridge says the pipe will be loaded into a truck, which will then be sealed — a precaution to prevent tampering — and then trucked to D.C.

As to when the section of line will be replaced, Wuori said he was uncertain as the company is fighting oil and water which keeps flushing into the trench where the line is. He said any contamination has to be removed before the new section of line will be secured in place.