  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 25, 2012
Contact: Maggie Kao, 202-675-2384
Sierra
Club Marks the Two Year Anniversary of the Kalamazoo Tar Sands Disaster
Marshall, MI – Today marks the two year anniversary of
the 2010 Kalamazoo tar sands disaster when an Enbridge-owned tar sands crude
pipeline ruptured under Talmadge Creek, dumping almost a million gallons of toxic
tar sands oil and poisoning nearly 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River. A recent federal
investigation showed that Enbridge knew about damage to the pipeline five years
before the disaster, and did nothing. The report also found gross incompetence on
the part of Enbridge, which took hours to discover the leak, as well as lax
government oversight and protections to prevent the disaster.
Sierra Club and a wide coalition of partners
are holding events across the country today marking the anniversary and drawing
attention to the dangers toxic tar sands pipelines.
The following is a statement
from Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune:
“Two years after the nation’s most destructive onshore oil spill, the
reasons why tar sands are not welcome in America keep stacking up: gross
incompetence among pipeline companies, pipeline safety officials who are asleep
on the job and the disastrous pollution of Americans’ water and air that has
yet to be cleaned up.
“The price of toxic tar sands is too high. Just ask the Michigan families whose children
were sickened and who now live in fear of the unknown, long-term health effects
of exposure to toxic tar sands. Tar sands crude is too destructive and our water,
air and the health of our families are far too precious to leave in the hands
of oil companies like Enbridge and TransCanada.”
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