Addison Township residents do not need to fear a Kalamazoo River type oil spill in their backyards due to the proactive measures taken by Enbridge Inc. earlier this year.
According to Addison Twp. Supervisor Bruce Pearson, repair crews have been working on the oil pipeline for the last three months.
‘They have been doing repair because we had rusted pipes in our area,? Pearson said. ‘They have been repairing now for months.?
The repair crew sent a small mobile camera into the pipe to film the inside of the pipe and look for rust spots.
Once they found the rust spots, sleeves would be welded over them, Pearson said.
An oil pipeline that runs from Alberta, Canada through Addison and Oxford Twp ruptured last week in Kalamazoo, spilling an estimated total of 840,000 gallons of oil in the Kalamazoo River Tributary on Monday, July 26.
Enbridge ran the pipes through Addison Township in 1968 and laid it all the way down to the Jackson, Battle Creek area.
Pearson indicated that the township would be ready in case something did happen to the pipeline.
‘They (Enbridge) had a big conference down in Troy and they invited the fire chief, myself, the township treasurer and our police commander and all of the fire department and they gave a big seminar about safety procedures,? Pearson said.
‘So we are very well versed in the pipeline,? he added.