WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- The Lakehead pipeline system may have leaked oil for more than 12 hours in Michigan before it was reported to U.S. officials, a regulator testified.
Line 6B of the Lakehead oil pipeline system burst in late July, spilling around 20,000 barrels of oil into the waters of southern Michigan.
Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on her agency's investigation into the accident.
She said that a report to the National Response Center was issued around 1:30 p.m. July 26. The leak, however, may have started as early as the day before, an NTSB statement read.
Richard Abrams, the vice president of U.S. operations for the pipeline company, told the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials weeks before the Michigan spill that his company's response time to any leak was "almost instantaneous."
Michigan utility company Consumers Energy informed Enbridge of the accident.
The NTSB received two sections of the damaged pipeline at their facilities in Virginia and is examining the cause of the accident.
"We are still in the very early stages of our investigation," she said.
