Enbridge Inc. Offers Compensation for Oil Spill Disaster

Enbridge Inc. has a big, expensive mess on its hands as a result of a failed pipeline that leaked more than a million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River last week. The energy company, owned by Enbridge Energy Partners of Houston, TX, has offered to buy 200 homes on property affected by the spill. The company has agreed to buy the properties at their pre-spill assessed value, and pay the list price for houses already for sale. Eligible houses sit within 200 feet of the river, and up to 30 miles downstream from the source of the leak. The company’s offer could potentially stabilize property values in the area, which are likely to drop until the spill is completely cleaned up.

The company’s seemingly generous offer might be a bandaid on a broken leg for many residents, who were not intending to move but have been forced to at least temporarily evacuate their homes as a result of the noxious smell from the spill. So far, 26 people have been sent to the emergency room for spill-related injuries, including respiratory trouble, headaches, and nausea.

For residents living on the river, the Enbridge offer leaves them between a rock and a hard place. Selling their house to the energy company (for fair market value!) still leaves them without a home, but Mark Durno, the Environmental Protection Agency’s deputy incident commander on site guesses that “It’s going to be a long time” before the contaminated site is cleaned up. And for residents who chose to live on the banks of the idyllic river, the sight of black goop along the banks and an oily sheen across the water is devastating.

The Best Things in Life are Free

Marshall residents whose lives and property have been disrupted by the spill deserve fair compensation for their losses. After all, the company responsible for the spill generates $12 billion in revenue annually, and Enbridge’s stock value was at an all-time high before the spill. Additionally, this is a company with a track record of pipeline-safety violations, and there is an ongoing investigation into whether Enbridge officials knew about, and subsequently failed to address, the pipeline corrosion that lead to the spill.  It does raise a big question, though: if Enbridge has the kind of money to offer fair market value on 200 homes in the area, why didn’t they proactively use this money to monitor and repair corroded pipes, entirely preventing this devastating debacle?

So far, Enbridge officials have promised to compensate residents for all damages and return the river to its pre-spill health. What corporations consistently fail to recognize, though, is that prevention is cheaper and easier than disaster management and, equally important, money can’t buy the tranquility offered - free of charge - by an unspoiled river.

 

Photo credit: Michigan League of Conservation Voters