Above photo: 42 inch pipes will pump the most gritty, chemical-laced sludge known to man.
Dwarfing The KXL, Enbridge Pipeline 61 Gets Upgrades for Tar Sands
With continued distractions and temporary victories over the Keystone XL Pipeline, Enbridge Company quietly continues to upgrade line 61 to carry tar sands through Wisconsin and to the Oil refineries in Northern Illinois with very little resistance. With only a Dane County zoning committee standing in the way of the oil giants intentions, Enbridge appears that they may continue to be North America’s largest oil and gas pipeline operator.
Line 61 went into operation in 2009 and has a capacity of 400,000 barrel per day. In 2014 Wisconsin State administration’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued the company an air quality permit for a storage tank needed for the expansion. The State did not require a new environmental assessment for the tripling in capacity. Now the Dane County Board’s Zoning and Land Regulation Committee is considering attaching conditions to the permit for the new pump station. This attachment may be what is needed for now, but many remain unconvinced.
These plans by Enbridge have not gone completely ignored, numerous activist groups throughout the Upper Mid West have pledged resistance. Direct action training continues and with a 2016 completion date looming a fight with the oil giant seems imminent. You can stay updated with local resistance at Facebook page Stop The Expansion of Enbridge’s Line 61 in Wisconsin.