It may well be that various kinds of accidents are bound to happen on a pipeline project. But here’s something probably nobody expected: according to reports, Enbridge construction crews have discovered a human skull in Porter County in Indiana. The area has now been declared a crime scene. It’s not clear whether or for how long the discovery of this grisly memento mori might delay construction.
A long time ago, we started a series of “weird” Line 6B news items. Honestly, we kind of forgot about it. But an odd report from the Times of Northwest Indiana has given us reason to revive the series:
Apparently, a bunch of construction workers got into something of a scuffle on Monday. The reasons for the altercation aren’t altogether clear, though it appears to have something to do with layoffs. However, because we have heard so many strange, somewhat troubling stories– ultimately unverifiable (which is why we’ve never written about them)– about Precision Pipelines, we can’t help but wonder what else might be going on. We have no idea, of course, but it would be interesting to get to the bottom of this.
We do know this, though: we don’t like seeing unhappy workers any more than we like seeing unhappy landowners. In fact, in our view, the labor practices on this project is one of its biggest un-covered and unwritten stories (a whole series of them, we suspect). If we had more time and an investigative team, we’d be all over it. Perhaps a young, hungry, enterprising, creative, hardworking journalist wants to take on that job (yeah, we’re looking at you Jennifer Bowman).
Well, this one’s hard to resist: the debate up in Canada over Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project– basically, Canada’s version of Keystone XL– continues. And just last week, in testimony before the Canadian Joint Review Panel, an industry “consultant” named John Thompson offered some pretty novel testimony. You see, it turns out that oil spills have a way of kind of correcting themselves because they are actually economically beneficial.
Seriously. Citing the famous 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, Thompson goes on:
Although a spill could have a big impact on the fishery, Thompson said compensation and other opportunities – such as working on clean up crews – will ensure people don’t lose any income. He said the compensation packages would not just go to those catching the fish but also people working in processing industries.
“The net result of these whole compensation schemes is the idea that at the end of the day, nobody is any worse off than they were beforehand,” he said. “So what you would see is that the income levels would remain the same, the source of the income would differ. Instead of getting it directly from sales of product, it would be through the income compensation.”
I assume this sort of thing applies to Marshall, Michigan as well. Nobody there is “any worse off than they were before.” Right?
About a week ago, we launched a playful new series of strange items we’ve encountered recently. We kicked things off with a picture of the convenient wipes that are now available along the Kalamazoo River for cleaning the oil off of your skin and boat– such a thoughtful amenity!
Today’s item is weird in a totally different way. Since we began writing this blog and reaching out to landowners about eight months ago, we’ve met lots of wonderful, fascinating people and have experienced and done all sorts of things we never really imagined ourselves doing– some of them not that strange, like attending and speaking up at local township meetings; and some of them rather surreal, like eating midnight beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans with oil pipeline executives (and various other eccentrics, like this guy).
But even that doesn’t compare to what we’ll be doing this week, along with two of our very favorite people we’ve met through all of this, Beth Wallace and Kim Savage. On Thursday, the three of us will be speaking at a meeting of the Michigan chapter of the International Right of Way Association. It’s true! No joke! Just look:
What will we say? We haven’t totally decided yet, but it won’t just be a repeat of our last presentation at the Pipeline Safety Trust conference. And in fact, we’re likely to say some things we’ve never even posted here. A long time ago, we made a conscious decision not to spend our time and energy on this blog beating up on ROW agents– even though we have heard plenty of stories of their bad behavior, stories that would curl your hair. And we have ourselves experienced a fair amount of unprofessional conduct and heard plenty of misinformation from them. Yet (as memory serves), we have never once called out a ROW agent by name (or even deed) here on this blog.
Partly, that’s because we do not get personal. But also it’s because Enbridge is ultimately responsible for the conduct and behavior of its ROW agents. Indeed, as far as landowners are concerned, the ROW agents that come to our houses ARE Enbridge; they are the company’s direct interface with landowners. So if and when they lie, intimidate, disrespect, misinform, misbehave, or otherwise fail to deal openly and honestly and cooperatively and protectively with and toward landowners– well, that’s Enbridge doing it– because Enbridge lets them do it.
So, it’s likely on Thursday that we’ll tell all of the ROW agents– primarily a bunch of good, honest, hardworking, professional people, we are sure– that some among them do lie, intimidate, disrespect, misinform, misbehave, or otherwise fail to deal openly and honestly and cooperatively with and toward landowners. And when they do, it reflects poorly on ROW agents in general. So perhaps their peers can help keep the bad actors in line in a way that Enbridge either can’t or won’t.
We will, of course, provide you with a full report of the proceedings.
This week (or so) is just about (we don’t remember the precise day) the one year anniversary of the day an Enbridge ROW agent showed up at our door (yes, armed with condemnation papers– even though at that time Enbridge had not technically been given that power yet. But what did we know, all green and wet behind the ears?!). Looking back on the year that has been, we can’t say we’d want to relive it all over again. But it has had its bright spots: as we’ve said many times, we’ve gotten to know some really marvelous people. And, at the very least, it’s been awfully interesting. How much we’ve learned!
It has also, at times, been more than a little weird. In fact, we’ve got and handful of weird items to share. We’ll start with just one and save the others for later posts:
First up, some old news that we were reminded of this morning during Nate Pavlovic’s excellent Line 6B webinar. (If you missed it, the recording is available now. It’s well worth your time, especially if you’re in Indiana). Anyway, Nate included a picture of one of the oddest things that’s come out of the Marshall spill. When the Kalamazoo River reopened last summer, containers were installed along the riverbank containing wipes, so that when swimmers and boaters get out of the river they can clean the oil off of themselves and their vessels. It’s just like nature intended! Come to think of it, maybe these wipe dispensers are what those political staffers we spoke to were talking about when they told us the Kalamazoo River was cleaner than ever— a phrase that was surely picked up from Enbridge.
