Enbridge reports new pipeline leak

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. is dealing with a second pipeline leak in the United States in less than three months.

The energy giant's U.S. subsidiary, Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P., reported Thursday that a leak was detected in a pipeline running through Romeoville, Ill.

The line was shut down within minutes, Enbridge said in a news release.

Crude oil was released on to a roadway and then into a retention pond, Enbridge said Thursday, but it couldn't estimate the size of the leak.

The company said its personnel were on site to contain the leak and clean up the oil.

"Enbridge is treating this situation as a top priority," Enbridge Energy Partners president Terrance McGill said in the release. "Safety is our top priority and Enbridge will do everything we can to minimize the impact on the environment, neighbouring landowners and communities."

The shutdown comes on the heels of a leak in a pipeline in Michigan this summer that caused a major spill.

Stephanie Goodwin, a British Columbia-based spokeswoman for Greenpeace, said word of another pipeline leak shows the Calgary-based company can't be trusted.

"The announcement today [Thursday] that it's shutting a second tar sands oil pipeline in less than three months speaks volumes about the state of Enbridge's network of aging pipelines," she said in an email statement.

"Enbridge has lost its ability to look the public in the eye and say 'trust me, our pipelines are safe."'

The pipeline, which transports crude oil to Griffith, Ind. from Superior, Wis., is part of Enbridge's Lakehead System.

Enbridge was widely criticized over the Michigan spill, which leaked nearly 20,000 barrels of crude, some of it into a creek that feeds the Kalamazoo River.

The slick coated fish and Canada geese in oil. Enbridge estimated cleanup and other costs from that spill could reach $400 million US.