Enbridge Inc. today reported that the damaged Line 3, which spilled an estimated 325 barrels of oil last Wednesday after a fiery explosion killed two company workers near Clearbrook, Minn., was restarted about 5:30 a.m. this morning.
The brief duration of the outage, combined with the company's storage capacity minimized impact on crude oil production and deliveries, company officials said in a press release today.
The cause of the accident remains under active investigation with complete results not expected for several weeks.
The blast from the pipeline, which sent oil spraying into the freezing air, killed Steve Arnovich, 35, and David Mussatti, 27, both of Superior, Wis. There were 17 other workers on the site, making repairs to a segment of the pipeline. No one else was reported injured.
Three other Enbridge oil pipelines near Clearbrook returned to service the day after the fire-ball blast, which killed two Enbridge workers, about five miles southeast of Clearbrook in Clearwater County, about 90 miles southeast of Grand Forks.
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Repair crews overcame a major winter snow storm over the weekend to get the damaged line back in service. A 180-foot segment of pipeline was replaced was "returned to pre-incident operating pressures" following consultation with the Federal pipeline safety regulator, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Enbridge said.
The oil spill largely was contained in a trench dug for the repair project. Contaminated soil was excavated and transported to an approved facility, officials said.
Doug Bellefeuille, with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said, after an assessment of the spill site, the oil will impact the area, but it's not "a large an environmental issue."
Enbridge said it will continue to work with state and federal agencies to complete the environmental cleanup of the site.
The section of damaged pipeline was removed and transported to a third-party facility for examination and testing.
Enbridge operates the world's longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system in Canada and the United States. The company owns and operates Canada's largest natural gas distribution company, which provides distribution services in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and in New York State.
The lines that run through Minnesota near Clearbrook send oil to the Twin Cities and to refineries in the Chicago area. Oil also goes to the Duluth/Superior area.
An Enbridge-owned line, which starts in eastern Montana and runs through Grand Forks, ends at the Clearbrook facility.
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Enbridge Energy Partners L.P., owns the U.S. portion of the company's liquid petroleum pipeline and is active in natural gas gathering, treating, processing and transmission.
