Grand Marsh Spill Triggers Debate

As clean-up of the central Wisconsin oil spill continues, environmental groups are raising concerns about pipeline safety.

The U.S. EPA is overseeing clean-up of the 50,000 gallons of oil that spilled from a pipeline near Grand Marsh last Friday afternoon. Clean-up supervisor Richard Karl says contaminated soil in a farm pasture is still being removed, and the EPA is checking to see if groundwater has been polluted.

Karl also says the air is being monitored, and high levels of benzene near the spill occasionally force workers to take a break, even though the crew is wearing filtering respirators.

Karl says the pipeline owner Enbridge is providing the resources necessary to clean up the spill. The National Wildlife Federation’s Beth Wallace says Enbridge has a long record of problems.

Wallace says her group wants to know why there was a delay in reporting Friday’s spill to a national response center, and whether the company had recently pumped a more corrosive oil through the pipe, weakening it for the lighter crude oil now in a Wisconsin farm pasture. An Enbridge spokesperson did not return our phone call.