MARSHALL, MICHIGAN -- (Marketwire) -- 08/08/10 -- PATRICK DANIEL, President & CEO
We continue to make good progress on our promise to clean up the river and the shorelines and to compensate people for damages associated with the spill.
In terms of clean-up status I don't think we have anything to add to the EPA's report on our clean-up effort but with regard to residents and damage claims I would just like to comment that our Community Centre in Marshall will open tomorrow morning. We have already processed numerous claims in our Battle Creek Community Centre and that is continuing to go well.
Just a reminder that these resources are meant for community residents who were directly affected by the spill and we ask that all others please respect their needs when you're assessing your own requests for assistance.
We're finalizing the purchase of two homes as a result of our discussions with homeowners. We're also continuing to meet with all homeowners in the most directly affected areas to discuss damage to their properties and whether any others want to sell.
That's a very brief summary of the current status and what I'd like to do now is turn it over to Steve Wuori who will very briefly talk about some details on the clean-up and the pipe.
STEVE WUORI, Executive Vice President, Liquids Pipelines
I visited the spill site and also flew the entire creek and river to Morrow Lake just earlier this afternoon. At the spill site, as you heard earlier, the pipe section has now been confirmed as having arrived at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) labs in Washington. They are actually across the river in Virginia.
We now have about 50 feet of pipe exposed on either side of the removed section and under the guidance of the Office of Pipeline Safety we are examining those two sections inch-by-inch and taking great care in the examination of the pipe before we weld the new pipe section into place.
The clean-up of the spill site itself is going well and we now have scraped most of the contaminated soil out of the swamp area. That soil is being transported to an EPA-approved disposal site.
As you heard earlier the clean-up of the creek and the river is going along well. We're actively cleaning the creek banks and the shorelines along the river, and also actively removing sheen from the river.
Enbridge has launched a website to provide updates and further information about the Company's response to the leak on the 6B pipeline near Marshall, Michigan. The URL for the website is response.enbridgeus.com.
Contacts:
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Toll-free Media Line: (888) 992-0997
www.enbridgepartners.com
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Vern Yu
Investor Relations
(403) 231-3946