The Enbridge Pipeline System is an

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

pipeline system which transports crude oil and

dilbit Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naphtha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines. Per the Alberta Oil Sands B ...

from Canada to the United States. The system exceeds in length including multiple paths. More than of the system is in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

while the rest is in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and serves the Athabasca oil sands production facilities. Main parts of the system are Canadian Mainline and Lakehead System (U.S. Mainline). On average, it delivers of

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

and other products to the major

oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefie ...

in the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

and the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The Canadian portion is owned by

Enbridge Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...

, while the U.S. portion is partly owned by that company through Enbridge Energy Partners, LP, formerly known as Lakehead Pipe Line Partners and Lakehead Pipe Line Company.

Background

The first portion of the pipeline was built over the course of 150 days in 1950 by a 1,500-man labor force. It crossed approximately from Redwater, Alberta, through

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

, and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, to the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

Superior, Wisconsin , native_name_lang = oj , nickname = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Downtown Superior , ima ...

. At the same time, four

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

s were constructed to carry the crude from Superior to

Sarnia, Ontario Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flo ...

. Oil first entered the pipe on August 25, 1950, and the first tanker, ''Imperial LeDuc'', was launched on November 4. Other tankers that followed were, ''Imperial Redwater'', ''Imperial Woodbend'', and ''B.A. Peerless''. Because the lakes froze in the winter, preventing tanker traffic, the decision was soon made to expand the pipeline all the way to Sarnia. In May 1953, contracts were awarded and construction began. At , it became the world's longest pipeline. A major upgrade was undertaken in the 1990s to replace old pipe and expand the system.

Mainline system

Today, there are two routes that oil can take between Superior and Sarnia. A northern route passes through the upper and

lower Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...

peninsulas of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

before crossing into

, while the southern route circles south of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

through

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

before reaching Michigan. There are 59 pumping stations in the pipeline system, and the actual pipes range in diameter from . One major junction point is in

Clearbrook, Minnesota Clearbrook is a city in Clearwater County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 464 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Main routes include Minnesota St ...

where the pipeline connects to the

Minnesota Pipeline The Minnesota Pipe Line (or MPL) is a crude oil pipeline that runs from Clearbrook, Minnesota southward to the Twin Cities. Construction began in 2007 after the State of Minnesota approved the building permit, and ended in 2008; it is owned by ...

, which carries crude to the Pine Bend Refinery in

Rosemount, Minnesota Rosemount is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, Dakota County, Minnesota, United States, on the southern edge of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. The population was 25,650 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Rosemount was establi ...

. The North Dakota Pipeline Company system of pipeline also has a connection in Clearbrook, linking the

Mandan Refinery The Mandan Refinery is the largest oil refinery in North Dakota, located within the northeastern corner of the city limits of Mandan, ND just north off Exit 153 of Interstate 94. As of 2022 it has a capacity of per day. The facility is owned by ...

Mandan, North Dakota Mandan is a city on the eastern border of Morton County and the eighth-largest city in North Dakota. Founded in 1879 on the west side of the upper Missouri River, it was designated in 1881 as the county seat of Morton County. The population was ...

. The

Murphy Oil Murphy Oil Corporation is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is ranked 625th on the Fortune 500 and 1860th on the Forbes Global 2000. As of December 31, 2020, the company had of estimate ...

refinery in

Superior, Wisconsin , native_name_lang = oj , nickname = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Downtown Superior , ima ...

, is directly linked to the pipeline. Another point in

Lockport, Illinois Lockport is a city in Will County, Illinois, United States, located 30 miles southwest of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 26,094. The city was incorporated in 1853. It is situated along the Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal, an ...

connects two pipelines to

Patoka, Illinois Patoka is a town in Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 584 at the 2010 census. History The village was named after a local Native American chieftain. Patoka is a town created in the 1860s United States. Geography Pat ...

, plus a longer link to

Cushing, Oklahoma Cushing ( sac, Koshineki, iow, Amína P^óp^oye Chína, ''meaning: "Soft-seat town"'') is a city in Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 7,826 at the time of the 2010 census, a decline of 6.5% since 8,371 in 2000. Cushing w ...

. A relatively short link from Stockbridge, Michigan connects to two refineries in the

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

area. The Mainline system, conventionally divided into the US and Canadian mainlines, consists of 1900 miles of pipeline that run from central

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

to southern

via the northern US. The system can carry up to 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. Lines 1 through 4 connect Edmonton to

Superior, Wisconsin , native_name_lang = oj , nickname = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Downtown Superior , ima ...

. From there, Line 5 runs through the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

of Michigan and across the

straits of Mackinac The Straits of Mackinac ( ; french: Détroit de Mackinac) are the short waterways between the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, traversed by the Mackinac Bridge. The main strait is wide with a maximum depth of , and connects ...

to cross back into Canada at the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River (french: Rivière Sainte-Claire) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron int ...

. Line 6 runs south through Wisconsin and Illinois to the terminal in

Griffith, Indiana Griffith is a town in the Calumet and St. John townships in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 16,331 in 2021. History The Griffith State Bank, E.J. and E. Griffith Interlock ...

, which serves BP Whiting and other Chicago-area clients, and then continues on through northwest Indiana and southern Michigan to rejoin Line 5 at

. The Mainline system comprises Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 61, 62, 64, and 67. Pipelines that connect to the system, but are not part of it, include Line 9 (Montreal to Sarnia), Line 17 ( Stockbridge to Toledo), and Line 55 ( Flanagan to Cushing).

Expansion

As of 2013 there were expansion plans for the pipeline system which would, if permitted and fully built, provide the capacity to transport an amount of

from the Athabasca oil sands into the United States and the Gulf Coast equal to that of the

Keystone Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...

Accidents and incidents

Largest inland oil spill In U.S. history

In 1991, Enbridge's

Line 3 pipeline The Line 3 pipeline is an oil pipeline owned by the Canadian multinational Enbridge. Operating since 1968, it runs from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, United States. Concerns about the safety of the pipeline led Enbridge ...

spilled 1.7 million gallons of oil in

Grand Rapids, Minnesota Grand Rapids is a city in Itasca County, Minnesota, United States, and it is the county seat. The population is 11,126 according to the 2020 census. The city is named for the long rapids in the Mississippi River which was the uppermost limit ...

and the Prairie River, a tributary of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. It was the largest inland spill of oil in U.S. history. Deliberations over construction of a new Line 3 pipeline have drawn resistance from

climate justice Climate justice is a concept that addresses the just division, fair sharing, and equitable distribution of the burdens of climate change and its mitigation and responsibilities to deal with climate change. "Justice", "fairness", and "equity" ar ...

organizers and Native communities in Minnesota.

Cohasset, MN oil spill

On July 4, 2002, 252,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into a marsh near

Cohasset, Minnesota Cohasset is a city in Itasca County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,698 at the 2010 census. U.S. Highway 2 serves as a main route in Cohasset. History A post office called Cohasset has been in operation since 1892. The city was ...

due to a rupture of Line 4 running from

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

, and

Superior, Wisconsin , native_name_lang = oj , nickname = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Downtown Superior , ima ...

.National Transportation Safety Board. (2002).
Rupture of Enbridge Pipeline and Release of Crude Oil near Cohasset, Minnesota
''. Pipeline Accident Report NTSB/PAR-04/01. Washington, DC: Author. Emergency responders enacted a

controlled burn A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, is a fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. A control ...

at 4:45pm the next day to prevent the oil from penetrating into any waterways. The cost of remediating the accident was reported around $5.6 million.

Clearbrook Junction, MN, fire

On November 28, 2007, a large fire erupted during pipeline repair work at the Clearbrook Junction. This fire, described by a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety as a "big fire, not an explosion", killed two workers and caused a $4 per barrel spike in oil prices the following day. The pipeline carries crude from

to the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

area.

Kalamazoo River oil spill

On July 26, 2010, 840,000 gallons of

crude oil leaked from the pipeline in

Calhoun County, Michigan Calhoun County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 134,310. The county seat is Marshall. The county was established on October 19, 1829, and named after John C. Calhoun, who was at the time Vice ...

, spilling into Talmadge Creek that flows into the

Kalamazoo River The Kalamazoo River is a river in the U.S. state of Michigan. The river is long from the junction of its North and South branches to its mouth at Lake Michigan, with a total length extending to when one includes the South Branch.U.S. Geologica ...

. Despite alarms at Edmonton headquarters it took eighteen hours and a report from a Michigan utilities employee before the pipeline company acted to halt the flow finally. Enbridge reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency for a total of $177 million in response to the spill, along with an additional spill in Romeoville, Illinois later that year. This settlement included $110 million in spill prevention, $62 million in Clean Water Act violations, and $5.4 million in cleanup costs. In addition, the company was fined $3.7 million by the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

due to 24 violations in pipeline safety regulation. By 2014, the cost of cleanup to the company totaled to $1.21 billion.

Mackinac Straits Tugboat anchor incident

In 2018, a tugboat dropped its anchor on the pipeline near the

Straits of Mackinac The Straits of Mackinac ( ; french: Détroit de Mackinac) are the short waterways between the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, traversed by the Mackinac Bridge. The main strait is wide with a maximum depth of , and connects ...

in Michigan, denting the pipe and causing 600 gallons (2,270 liters) of

mineral oil Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum, as distinct from usually edible vegetable oils. The name 'mineral oil' by itself is imprecise, ...

to leak from two electric cables.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

Enbridge

Enbridge Asset Map (current)
{{Canadian pipelines * Transport in Alberta Oil pipelines in Indiana Transport in Manitoba Pipelines in Michigan Oil pipelines in Minnesota Oil pipelines in North Dakota Transport in Ontario Oil pipelines in Wisconsin Oil pipelines in Canada Crude oil pipelines in the United States Energy infrastructure in Illinois Enbridge Oil spills in Alberta Environmental issues in Alberta

Background

Mainline system

Expansion

Accidents and incidents

Largest inland oil spill In U.S. history

Cohasset, MN oil spill

Clearbrook Junction, MN, fire

Kalamazoo River oil spill

Mackinac Straits Tugboat anchor incident

See also

Bibliography

References

External links