By Mike Zaman

While America is still reeling from the negligence of BP in the Gulf of Mexico, new revelations have surfaced that shows oil companies are not taking proper care of either their rigs or pipelines.

BP for example recently had a problem with its Alaska pipeline; they failed to add lubricants to the oil to insure that the pipes won’t corrode and rupture. Now another company Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge, Inc. is accused of failing to properly monitor the corrosion of its pipe line which ruptured and has spilled more than 1 million gallons of oil on Monday into Talmadge Creek, in Michigan.

In less than 48 hours the oil had travelled more than 35 miles downstream passing through Battle Creek and entered Calhoun County’s Marshall Township, killing fish and other wildlife in its path.

The slick is currently heading toward Morrow Lake and is about 7 miles away, and on course to enter Lake Michigan. If it is not contained before it enters the primary lake, it will be another ecological disaster of a major proportion.

The rivers ecology, Snails, frogs, muskrats and even birds eat, live and nest on or near the riverbank, the loss of wildlife has not yet been measured but is still growing. Oil contamination inhibits the natural cycle of species life patterns.

The Michigan leak came from a 30-inch pipeline, which was built in 1969 and carries about 8 million gallons of oil daily from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario.

With all the oil in Canada, why are we exporting oil to Canada?
But aside from the obvious, we are witnessing oil spills in our lakes and oceans at an unprecedented level, as we pollute our natural resources, we are diminishing our own ability to survive.

But equally as important, where are the government watchdogs that are to oversee these companies and assure that they are properly monitoring their oil lines as well as the rigs.

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Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Michigan, Michigan, oil lines, Oil rigs

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.