LANSING – The U.S. Department of
Justice announced a settlement Monday with Enbridge Energy Company that will
incorporate portions of the state settlement over the 2010 oil pipeline rupture
into the Kalamazoo River and require some additional work.
The settlement puts federal
authority behind the state requirements that the company complete any remaining
cleanup and restoration in the spill area, work the settlement estimates at $58
million. It then requires another $6 million in restoration efforts.
Among the new work under the federal
settlement is replacing culverts and removing water flow obstacles in the spill
region, increasing floodplain capacity in two tributaries, controlling invasive
species in and along the river in the Fort Custer State Recreation Area, and
restoring wild rice beds in the river and an oak savanna in the recreation
area.
The work has to be done in
consultation with members of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of the
Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the
Potawatomi to ensure their historic uses of the river are restored.
“Working together, the natural
resource trustees are using the settlements in tandem to develop a big-picture,
comprehensive plan to restore natural resources,” said Deputy Regional
Director Charlie Wooley for the Midwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. “This cooperative approach will enhance our ability to return to
the public the natural resources lost due to the spill.”
This story
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