(WXMI) — Companies operating oil pipelines in the Great Lakes Basin would be required to use the latest monitoring and safety technology to prevent spills if new legislation, introduced by Michigan Sen. Gary Peters (D–MI), passes.
On Wednesday, Senator Peters introduced the Preventing Releases of Toxic Environmental Contaminants Threatening (PROTECT) Our Great Lakes Act. It would build on his previously authored PIPES Act, which passed unanimously in 2016. That legislation established high-consequence areas or regions that would be especially affected by pipeline disasters.
“This legislation builds on that and requires now that those pipelines that exist in high-consequence areas use the best available technology to actually monitor the operations of those pipelines,” said Senator Peters. “What we want to do is put it into law to make sure all pipeline cleanup in the future is done using best techniques.”
Pipeline owners in high-consequence zones would foot the bill for the latest monitoring technology to, hopefully, be able to immediately detect and minimize the harm from oil spills that threaten water, wildlife and human life nearby.
Senator Peters alluded to the 2010 Kalamazoo River Enbridge oil spill – the most expensive and one of the most catastrophic pipeline spills in U.S. history.
“In that pipeline break, it actually took quite a bit of time for the operators to realize that oil was actually spilling out into the river,” he said. “That’s unacceptable. We need to know instantly so those pipelines can be shut down.”
The bill would also enable the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to better anticipate and prepare adequate responses to potential spills of diluted bitumen, a byproduct of petroleum distillation and the same harmful material that threatened the Kalamazoo River in 2010.
The bill would also provide expanded funding to the Great Lakes Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response, a Michigan-based center that teaches members of the U.S. Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) how to best clean up fresh-water oil spills.
“The technology is constantly developing, so what existed just two or three years ago has been improved. But we want to make sure that companies are constantly making those investments,” said Senator Peters. “[The Great Lakes] are a national treasure. This represents a huge body of fresh water that needs to be protected.”
The bill was officially introduced on Wednesday and will now head to the Senate Commerce Committee, which Senator Peters serves on.
