Enbridge Inc. Blamed In The Costliest Onshore Oil Spill Ever

Two years ago this month, an oil pipeline burst in Michigan, contaminating 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River. It didn't get much national notice because everyone was focused on the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

But the mess created by that Michigan spill was so great that it's become the costliest onshore spill in history — with a price tag of more than $800 million.

 On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board blamed the spill on the failure of the pipeline operator, Enbridge Inc., to follow its own safety rules.

Even after Enbridge learned of the spill, it did such a bad job of trying to contain it that the heavy tar sands oil the pipeline carried spread through 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River.

In 2005, Enbridge actually had learned that this section of the pipe was cracked and corroding from a report on the condition of the pipeline from an Enbridge contractor.

"Yet for five years they did nothing to address the corrosion or the cracking at the rupture site, and the problem festered." Hersman said.

That same 2005 report pointed to 15,000 defects in the pipeline, and Enbridge decided not to dig up this area to inspect it.

More than 800,000 gallons of crude oil gushed into nearby wetlands and a creek.