Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at improving pipeline safety.
Senator Peters says the legislation requires pipelines in what are considered high consequence areas to use the most up to date monitoring technology. He says this is critical to prevent spills that could damage lakes or rivers and harm wildlife.
The bill would also expand funding to study the impact a spill would have in freshwater lakes.
“We need to know if there’s a break in a pipeline, so it can be shut off as quickly as possible,” said Senator Peters. “For example, in what was the most catastrophic and most expensive pipeline break in history, which occurred in the Kalamazoo River, is there was a spill and it actually took some time before operators discovered the pipeline was broken and oil was flowing into the river.”
The bill first heads to the Senate Commerce Committee.
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