WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)-- Three U.S. senators have asked a federal agency to check on the safety of an oil pipeline that runs beneath Great Lakes waters.
Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois and Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan made the request Wednesday in a letter to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
They say Enbridge Energy Partners recently began pumping an additional 1.2 million gallons of oil daily through the line, built in 1953 and passing beneath the Straits of Mackinac where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet.
An Enbridge pipeline rupture polluted the Kalamazoo River in 2010. The senators say a similar break in the Straits could be disastrous.