Safe Crossings grew out of environmental tragedy to prevent oil spills
Safe Crossings technology was developed in response to the 2010 Enbridge pipeline spill in Marshall, Michigan by Michiganders who resolved to make oil spills a thing of the past.
In July 2010, a massive oil spill was discovered in Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan. The spill was caused by a ruptured pipeline managed by Enbridge Energy Partners, LLC, that transported crude oil from Canada through the United States. Old estimates of the spill placed the size of the spill at up to 1 million gallons. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that over 1.4 million gallons have been recovered from the river, meaning that the spill was even larger than previously known. This makes the Kalamazoo River one of the largest onshore oil spills in American history- and the most expensive.
The cause of the spill was pipe corrosion on the 43 year old pipeline. Inadequate maintenance has been blamed for the breach. While alarms blared in the pipeline’s control room in Edmonton indicating a possible problem, engineers assumed the issue was a mere bubble in the pipeline. Rather than investigate the issue further, investigations show technicians waived off the threat and continued to pump oil through the line. It took many hours until the company confirmed there was a problem. The spill oiled thousands of animals and caused thousands of residents to endure noxious fumes and property damage. The cost of spill ballooned to over $1.2 billion.
About 30 miles east in Jackson, Michigan, Safe Crossings founder Dale Moretz took in the news. As a Michigander and environmentalist, Dale was outraged that such a disaster could happen- and one so close to home. An inventor and award-winning entrepreneur, he began thinking of ways to harness the energy within the pipeline itself to prevent spills. Dale then began to develop the Safe Crossings system, which harnesses the pressure physics within pipelines to prevent spillage whenever a breach occurs.
Over the next 10 years, Dale researched how to create a pipeline that couldn’t leak. He spoke with industry regulators and government agencies to explore pipeline regulations and challenges. After years of work, the Safe Crossing system was patented. Enlisting the support of his four sons, he created Safe Crossings, LLC, to pursue the adoption of Safe Crossings technology to prevent oil spills throughout the world and avoid the needless environmental, public health, and clean-up and legal costs associated with them.