MARSHALL, MICHIGAN -- (Marketwire) -- 09/16/10 -- Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EEP)
Patrick Daniel, President & CEO, Enbridge Inc.
We continue to make significant progress in the clean-up of both Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River and as reported by Mark Durno the backfilling and restoration along the creek is well underway. Native grass planted to stabilize the creek shoreline has started to sprout at the upper part of the creek and I just came back from that area a little while ago myself and I'm very pleased with what I see there.
We're also working diligently to complete clean-up of the Kalamazoo River bank and of course absorb any sheen created by those clean-up efforts or the few rain showers that we've had over the last while.
We're very focused on meeting that September 27th deadline for primary clean-up of the banks on Talmadge and the Kalamazoo River in the safest and most efficient manner. However, as I've said before, Enbridge will be here as long as necessary to ensure that the clean-up meets the requirements and satisfaction of local, State and Federal Agencies.
We've now purchased six homes. We have another 11 homes in final stages of purchase. This program, as you know, was implemented early on to support the local real estate market.
From the first days of this event we have made a good-faith effort to institute a claims process that is simple and responsive and fair. As previously announced we also engaged former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Dennis Archer to examine our process and to make recommendations for improvement. His review is underway on that process right now.
Our internal review of hundreds of claims has identified 36 cases where liability release forms were obtained for expense reimbursement that were not necessary. But for those individuals, the release forms they signed have been voided. We also want to obviously assure the privacy of health records from individuals filing medical claims and Enbridge will no longer collect any medical proof directly. If medical proof is sent to us we will either return them or forward them to an appropriate health care claims processor.
We want the community to rest assured that affected parties will be made whole as a result of this incident.
So, in closing let me thank everyone for their continued patience, especially those whose lives and property we've directly impacted. We will make good on our commitments to restore the area to the satisfaction both of regulators and the people of Marshall and Battle Creek.
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
Investor Relations
Douglas Montgomery
Toll-free: (866) EEP INFO or (866) 337-4636