EPA says it has launched a criminal probe of Enbridge oil pipeline rupture

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday told a conference call with reporters that its criminal arm was investigating the July 25 pipeline rupture in Calhoun county.

The EPA announced in early August that it was conducting an investigation, but this is the first time the EPA has acknowledged a criminal probe into the ruptured line which spewed what the EPA estimates is more than one million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River and one its tributaries, Talmadge Creek.

On top the of the civil and criminal investigations by the EPA, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, and the Michigan Attorney General’s office all have active investigations into the incident as well. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating.

Also on Wednesday’s call, EPA Region 5 Director Susan Hedman confirmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from the Grand Rapids office have initiated an investigation into allegations that a subcontractor had hired undocumented workers to labor on the river for 12 to 14 hours a day. Those same workers were subjected to safety violations, which Hedman also addressed in the press call.

The undocumented workers on the river were employed by Garner Environmental contractor Hallmark Industrial. The workers were paid $800 a week to toil on the river for as many as 14 hours a day, seven days a week. They were also provided hotel rooms and food. A Michigan Messenger investigation uncovered the poor working conditions to which the undocumented workers were subjected last week. Within 24 hours of the Messenger investigation’s publication, Hallmark Industrial was fired by Garner Environmental.

On Wednesday of last week, authorities in Chamber County, Texas detained 59 people found on two charter buses in Winnie Texas. Authorities reported an additional 40 on the buses escaped. The buses had been chartered by Phillip Hallmark, CEO of Hallmark Industrial. Workers and the drivers of the buses told authorities they were returning from work on the Kalamazoo river oil spill. Upon questioning by Chambers County Sheriff officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 42 of the 59 men detained were determined to have been in the country illegally.

An investigation by Messenger’s sibling publication The Texas Independent revealed Hallmark was already facing criminal charges in Texas. The Texas Independent has also uncovered information about another Hallmark employee, Tommy Gard, who acted as a logistic manager of sorts for the company in Battle Creek.

Hedman said the EPA had mobilized additional health and safety personnel to monitor the river, and announced there was an “active investigation” into the allegations of unsafe working conditions. On Tuesday of last week, Enbridge conducted a mandatory safety training for clean up workers, although the training was provided only in English, so many of the Spanish speaking undocumented workers likely had difficulties in understanding the training.

Those allegations first arose when Michigan Messenger reported on them last week. Messenger was tipped off my a confidential source who also provided photographic evidence of the safety violations. Specifically, those photographs showed workers covered in oil saturated mud and still clothed in contamination protection clothing consuming food and water. The photographs also showed the so-called hot zone, where contamination of a hazardous substance was present, was not clearly separated from the cold zone, which is supposed to have no contamination in it.

On Tuesday, Messenger built on those allegations based on interviews with workers who said they were denied access to medical care and treatment under threat to their jobs.