US Congress to probe Michigan oil spill

Enbridge continues to clean up the Kalamazoo River in Michigan


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137008§ionid=3510203


The US Congress will investigate the cause of the new oil spill in the northern state of Michigan, where close to one million gallons of crude leaked into a major river.

The House of Representatives subcommittee on railroads, pipelines, and hazardous materials, plans to probe the spill and the oil well operator's responses to the disaster.

The Canadian oil company Enbridge Inc has been accused of failing to report the incident in time.

"Enbridge needs to answer some tough questions about how this happened, and I plan to hold them fully accountable," Reuters quoted Michigan Representative Mark Shauer as saying in a statement on Saturday.

"The company's failure to report the incident in a timely manner put public safety at risk, and we need to make sure something like this doesn't happen again," he added.

The accusations come after revelations that a company employee talked to firefighters near the spill site one day before its official announcement.

Shauer introduced legislation on Friday that would set a time limit to report environmental incidents to the government's National Response Center.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the leak began on Monday when a pipe in Marshall, Michigan burst and spew oil into the Kalamazoo river.