Great Lakes 'At Risk' From Plan to Replace Aging Enbridge Pipelines, Environmentalists Argue
04 October 2018
Energy
Part of the shoreline near the Straits of Mackinac that could be damaged by an oil spill. Mark Miller Photos / Photolibrary / Getty Images
The state of Michigan and Canadian pipeline company Enbridge announced a deal Wednesday to replace controversial aging pipelines that environmental groups worried put Lakes Michigan and Huron at risk for an oil spill, The Detroit Free Press reported.
Under the new plan, the existing 65-year-old pipelines, which are part of Enbridge's Line 5 carrying oil and liquefied natural gas between Wisconsin and Ontario, will be replaced with a new pipeline in a tunnel to be drilled into the bedrock beneath the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan, The Associated Press reported. The project will take seven to 10 years to complete and cost as much as $500 million. Enbridge will foot the bill.
<p>Michigan Governor Rick Snyder called the proposal "a common-sense solution" to the problem posed by the aging pipelines, saying that it would resolve "nearly every risk" of an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac.<br></p><p>But environmental groups, who have long opposed the pipeline, disagreed that the new plan was any sort of solution. </p><p>"Today, Governor Snyder cemented his disastrous legacy for the Great Lakes and the people of Michigan," Michigan organizer for <a href="https://www.cleanwateraction.org/" target="_blank">Clean Water Action</a> Sean McBearty told The Detroit Free Press. "As his administration comes to a close, he announced a last-minute deal with Enbridge Energy that will succeed in keeping the Great Lakes at risk from a massive Line 5 oil spill for the foreseeable future."</p><p>Mike Shriberg of the <a href="https://www.nwf.org/" target="_blank">National Wildlife Federation</a> also told The Associated Press that the plan would leave the body of water vulnerable to spills for many years, and David Holtz of <a href="https://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/" target="_blank">Oil and Water Don't Mix</a> said that Michigan's own studies showed there were better ways to provide the state with energy. </p><p>Enbridge said it would take measures to reduce the risk of an oil spill from the older pipelines during construction, including (a) conducting underwater investigations, (b) placing cameras in the straits to keep track of ship movements and enforce a no-anchor zone, and (c) making Enbridge staff available to manually shut down the pipeline during high-wave days if electric mechanisms fail.</p> <p>The Line 5 pipelines have been the subject of lawsuits and protests in recent months. The National Wildlife Federation and the <a href="http://elpc.org/" target="_blank"> Environmental Law & Policy Center</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/enbridge-pipeline-great-lakes-lawsuit-2598464630.html" target="_self">sued</a> the Coast Guard in August over an inadequate oil-spill response plan, in an ultimate bid to shut down the pipeline, since one is not allowed to operate a pipeline without a satisfactory response plan in place. Also in August, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pipeline-protest-michigan-enbridge-2598173435.html" target="_self">indigenous activists</a> set up a protest camp in Northern Michigan to protest the pipelines.</p><p>A study in July found that an oil spill from the pipelines could damage 400 miles of Great Lakes shoreline and cost Michigan $2 billion.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="72fdc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3KH3PR1576662959"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="857306496085970945" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Enbridge's Great Lakes Pipeline Has Spilled 1 Million Gallons Since 1968 https://t.co/9lFaOia3Y8 (@ecowatch)</div> — Sierra Club (@Sierra Club)<a href="https://twitter.com/SierraClub/statuses/857306496085970945">1493232771.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Straits of Mackinac, Mackinac Island. Jeff Lefevre / NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Two environmental groups have filed suit against the U.S. Coast Guard in a Detroit federal district court, arguing that their plan to respond in the case of a Great Lakes pipeline oil spill is inadequate, The Detroit News reported on Aug. 22.
The suit is part of a larger push to shut down Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Huron and Michigan and comes as indigenous activists have set up camps protesting the line that could damage 400 miles of shoreline in a spill.
<p style="">"Until we decommission this aging, risky pipeline, we need the best-possible spill response plan to protect our Great Lakes, our communities, our <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and our economy," <a href="https://www.nwf.org/" target="_blank">National Wildlife Federation</a> staff attorney Oday Salim said in a statement reported by The Detroit News.</p><p style="">National Wildlife Federation and the<a href="http://elpc.org/" target="_blank"> Environmental Law & Policy Center</a> (ELPC) are suing based on comments made by former Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft during a congressional hearing in November during which he said the Coast Guard was not prepared for a pipeline spill in the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/great-lakes">Great Lakes</a>. </p><p style="">"Between 2014 and 2017, Coast Guard personnel have publicly stated that the agency is ill-equipped to adequately remove a spill from the open waters of the Great Lakes—let alone one as severe as a worst case discharge," the <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CoastGuard.pdf" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> states, <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/coast-guard-plan-for-great-lakes-oil-spill-spurs-lawsuit/" target="_blank">Courthouse News Service reported</a>.</p><p style="">The suit argues that the Coast Guard's 2017 approval of the North Michigan Area Contingency Plan violates the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which was written in response to the Exxon-Valdez oil spill and mandates contingency plans in any areas where oil is transported through water, according to The Detroit News.</p><p style="">The case further argues that, if the contingency plan is invalid, the facility response plan (FRP) required to allow Enbridge to run its pipelines under the Great Lakes would also be invalid, according to Courthouse News Service.</p><p style="">"You are not allowed to operate without a facility response plan," ELPC senior attorney Margrethe Kearney told The Detroit News. "If the court agrees, as they should, that the area contingency plan is not valid then certainly one of the outcomes could be someone requesting that Line 5 be shut down."</p><p style="">Mistrust of Enbridge partly stems from a rupture in its line 6B in July 2010, in which more than one million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River in one of the nation's largest inland oil spills, according to Courthouse News Service.</p><p style="">Coast Guard spokesman Lieutenant Paul Rhynard refused to comment on the lawsuit, but told <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/08/coast_guard_not_ready_for_line.html" target="_blank">Michigan Live</a> that the Coast Guard was "confident" in the existing plan. </p><p style="">"The efforts that goes into these contingency plans is deliberate," Rhynard said.</p>
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</p><div id="bebc0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="HO5XFU1576663961"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="935902451269500928" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Environmental Groups Blast Michigan Officials for 'Trust' in Pipeline Operator https://t.co/QSHR1ZKWJf @GSCV… https://t.co/Ok08bU0mgp</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/935902451269500928">1511971507.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Environmental Groups Blast Michigan Officials for 'Trust' in Pipeline Operator
29 November 2017
Popular
The Mackinac bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac. Julie Falk / Flickr
Environmental groups are attacking an agreement between Michigan and Canadian oil transport company Enbridge, Inc. that set a timeline to determine the future of a controversial pipeline running across a channel where Lakes Huron and Michigan come together.
The 645-mile pipeline, Line 5, lies at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile-long environmentally sensitive stretch of water that serves as a center piece in Michigan's tourist industry. It cuts through the state as it runs from western to eastern Canada, bringing 23 million gallons of oil and liquid natural gas across the straits between Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas—an area noted for its choppy waters, unpredictable currents and subzero temperatures.
<p style="">"I can't imagine another place in the Great Lakes where it'd be more devastating to have an oil spill," Dave Schwab, an expert in hydrodynamics from University of Michigan, <a href="http://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/new_documentary_exposes_enbridge_line_5" target="_blank">told a Motherboard correspondent</a> in 2015. </p><p style="">Monday's agreement between Gov. Rick Snyder and Enbridge was designed to address immediate concerns about the 64-year-old twin pipeline. Under the agreement, Enbridge is required to halt pipeline operations if waves in the straits reach eight feet or higher for more than an hour. </p><p style=""><a href="http://www.michigan.gov/documents/snyder/Enbridge_Agreement_11-27-17_606863_7.pdf" target="_blank">The deal</a>, which doesn't preclude a permanent shut down of Line 5, requires Enbridge to evaluate three options for routing the pipeline through a tunnel or trench on or beneath the lakebed by June 2018. Enbridge also said it would take steps to prevent pipeline damage from ship anchors, and increase its monitoring by placing cameras and other devices near the pipeline. It would also expedite plans to detect potential ruptures and respond to spills.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="22070" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="HJEQG81576662968"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="859150447382327297" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Enbridge's Great Lakes Pipeline Has Spilled 1 Million Gallons Since 1968 https://t.co/9lFaOia3Y8 (@EcoWatch)</div> — Sierra Club (@Sierra Club)<a href="https://twitter.com/SierraClub/statuses/859150447382327297">1493672403.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p style="">"Business as usual by Enbridge is not acceptable and we are going to ensure the highest level of environmental safety standards are implemented to protect one of Michigan's most valuable natural resources," <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/michigan-enbridge-reach-deal-boost-safety-pipelines-51409606" target="_blank">Snyder said in a statement</a>. Michigan officials and Enbridge agreed to determine the future of Line 5 by Aug. 15, 2018.</p><p style="">The Republican governor's administration has resisted critics' demands to order the lines decommissioned, but that option "is still on the table," said Valerie Brader, executive director of the Michigan Agency for Energy, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/michigan-enbridge-reach-deal-boost-safety-pipelines-51409606" target="_blank">according to the AP</a>. </p><p style="">But the agreement comes as a growing bipartisan ensemble has voiced criticism for Line 5. Last January, U.S. representatives Dave Trott (R-Mich.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) <a href="https://debbiedingell.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/dingell-trott-demand-comprehensive-study-enbridge-line-5" target="_blank">introduced legislation</a> calling for a shutdown of the pipeline if federal agencies determine it poses a threat to the Great Lakes. In Michigan, Republican state senator Rick Jones introduced similar legislation in March.</p><p>Environmental groups complain that the agreement is partial to Enbridge and a plan to keep the pipeline in a tunnel beneath the seabed. </p><p style="">"Citizens are demanding real action," Lisa Wozniak, executive director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, told the Detroit Free Press. "Governor Snyder and Attorney General (Bill) Schuette have the power to shut Line 5 down; they simply are not using it."</p><p style="">Enbridge has <a href="http://www.latimes.com/sns-bc-us--michigan-pipeline-20171027-story.html" target="_blank">a history of opacity</a> inside the Great Lake state. In October, it was revealed that the company had kept information to itself for three years about areas on the pipeline missing protective coating.</p><p style="">The company's past in Michigan and neighboring states is also riddled with oil spills. A federal data analysis in April <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25042017/enbridge-pipeline-mackinac-line-5-michigan-oil-spill-risk" target="_blank">showed</a> that Line 5 has leaked more than 29 times in its 64-year history—spilling more than one million gallons of oil and gas liquids. Between 1968 and 2015 the spills varied in size from 285,600 gallons to eight gallons. </p><p style="">In 2010, about 240 miles south of the Straits of Mackinaw, another Enbridge pipeline, Line 6B, ruptured, spewing one million gallons of toxic <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tar-sands">tar sands</a> oil on a 40-mile stretch of river—the largest ever inland oil spill in the U.S. The river was closed for nearly two years for the more than one billion-dollar cleanup. Enbridge paid $2.8 billion for cleanup costs and other fines and penalties associated with the Line 6B spill.</p><p style="">"Our state leaders continue to place an enormous amount of trust in Enbridge to operate it [Line 5] responsibly," Wozniak <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/michigan-enbridge-reach-deal-boost-safety-pipelines-51409606" target="_blank">told the AP</a>. "Even while the company continues to repeatedly break that trust."</p>
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Below the Mackinac bridge runs Enbridge Line 5, transporting 23 Million gallons of oil and liquid gas every day. Conor Mihell
By Beth Wallace
In June, the state of Michigan released a draft report on alternatives to Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, which pumps up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) per day along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. The draft report, written by Dynamic Risk, was met with heavy criticism from all sides, and the National Wildlife Federation joined with many others to suggest numerous and substantive changes. On Nov. 20, the final alternatives report was released to the public. As per an agreement with the state to obtain funding for the report, Enbridge has had five days to review this report before it is released publicly.
<p style="">Mike Shriberg, executive director for the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Regional Center and a member of the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board, issued <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Home/Latest-News/Press-Releases/2017/11-20-17-Line-5-Alternatives-Analysis" target="_blank">the following statement</a> Monday about how we're evaluating the final alternatives analysis:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We're looking for this report to address four issues, at minimum, lacking in the first draft. It must assess what's best for Michigan—not Enbridge; it must analyze Michigan's share of product transported through Line 5; it must accurately assess the risk of Line 5 and treat that risk with the seriousness it deserves; and it must fully analyze all alternatives to Line 5."<br></p><p style="">Here's a little more detail about what we're looking for in the report.</p><p style=""><strong>What's Best for Michigan?</strong></p><p style="">Dynamic Risk needs to focus the final report so Michigan's interests are the main focus. The draft report <a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/mdeq-seeks-comments-line-5-plan" target="_blank">prioritized the business interests of Enbridge over the interests of Michigan's citizens</a>. The final report should start with a clear accounting of what products on Line 5 are actually utilized in Michigan and conduct the analysis by looking at alternatives for these uses for the state. Without this fundamental change, their assessment of risk and viability of alternatives fails to meet even the most basic expectations for the citizens of Michigan and the understanding of the Line 5 review process.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNTIwMDM1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjQ5NzI3M30.Hl7AUJirmVnQemAqS2RjOZtnkvTp2OZJVfPDQaot6q8/img.jpg?width=980" id="c2638" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e2842375324826c1ca6724b63f0ed9c9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small placeholder="add caption..." class="image-media media-caption">A blue heron covered in tar sands oil from the Kalamazoo River pipeline disaster.</small><small placeholder="add photo credit..." class="image-media media-photo-credit">Michigan DEQ</small></p>
<p style=""><strong>Michigan's Share of Product</strong><br></p><p style="">A majority of the oil and NGLs pumped through Line 5 originate in Canada and are delivered to Canada from this Canadian pipeline company, Enbridge. Michigan has only three uses for Line 5. First, less than 5 percent of Line 5 product goes to Rapid River, Michigan for processing into propane. Second, oil injected into Line 5 from northern Michigan wells is less than 5 percent and falling steadily, according to Dynamic Risk. Third, regional refineries fed by Line 5 could easily be fulfilled by other pipeline networks throughout our region. Addressing these three very solvable problems for Michigan, which is largely buried in the draft report, should be the focus of the final report.</p><p style=""><strong>Evaluating the Risk of a Line 5 Rupture</strong></p><p>The draft report significantly underestimated both the risk of failure of Line 5 and the cost of a failure. The cost figures assigned to alternatives and possible spill costs were grossly under represented and failed to consider major factors such as permitting, tribal treaty rights and threatened ecosystems (just to name a few). Moreover, Dynamic risk must correct the apples to oranges comparison on risk from alternatives. While Dynamic Risk only evaluated risk for up to 5 miles of Line 5 (traveling through the Great Lakes), for most of the outlined alternatives, they evaluated risk and cost associated with an entire project.</p><p style="">Dynamic Risk needs to assess risk for all of Line 5 and provide a more comprehensive cost breakdown to provide a proper assessment. Despite this poor analysis, Dynamic Risk did note, both in writing and during public information sessions, that the odds of a break in Line 5, under the Straits of Mackinac, is only one in 60.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNTIwMDI0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Nzg0NDIxOH0.Sc_0e4wLYzzD9IM3jTWUPE0oePryixpUPEi62DFg4Vc/img.jpg?width=980" id="e71c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d2a430adbdc639604925f8f617d92efd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small placeholder="add caption..." class="image-media media-caption">Endangered piping plovers nest along the Great Lakes shorelines which would be impacted by a Line 5 oil spill. </small><small placeholder="add photo credit..." class="image-media media-photo-credit">Vince Cavalieri / USFWS</small></p>
<p style="">The University of Michigan, conversely, estimated that a worst-case spill would pose a threat to 700 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, with more than 150 miles at risk from any one spill, and almost 17,000 square miles of Great Lakes open water vulnerable, with over 600 square miles impacted by any one spill. These models show threats to fish and wildlife habitat for species like the endangered piping plover (pictured), and sport-fish like atlantic salmon, steelhead, and lake trout which contribute to the Great Lakes $7 billion sport-fishery.<br></p><p style=""><strong>Analyzing Alternatives</strong></p><p>The draft report failed in its core mission: to fully analyze the alternatives to Line 5. For example, the report failed to properly take into account all alternative modes of transportation, including using rail to deliver propane or a detailed analysis on a new 4 inch pipeline to feed propane to Rapid River, Michigan. Perhaps one of the most viable and least risky alternatives is to divert Line 5 product to other Lakehead pipelines that Enbridge owns and has been expanding for years. Dynamic Risk failed to provide any practical details on why they removed this alternative.</p><p style="">Their failure to forecast and take into account even the most basic and publicly available information around how Enbridge's system is expanding downstream and perhaps shrinking upstream from Line 5 shows a possible bias in their review. With the debate heating up around the fate of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-enbridge-inc-minnesota-pipeline/enbridges-line-3-oil-pipeline-upgrade-challenged-by-minnesota-government-idUSKCN1BN08M" target="_blank">Line 3 in Minnesota</a>, which is one of the only light crude oil pipelines upstream to Line 5, a complete review of this alternative is warranted and should be expected of Dynamic Risk in the final report.</p><p style=""><strong>Next Steps<br></strong></p><p style="">In the months since the draft alternatives report was released, Enbridge's credibility in Michigan has been eroding faster than the protective coating on the pipeline itself. After telling the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Council last Spring that there were no patches of missing protective coating on Line 5, <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/10/27/enbridge-straits-pipeline-coating-michigan/807452001/" target="_blank">Enbridge admitted that they have known of multiple "holidays" in protective coating since 2014</a>.</p><p style="">It is critical that this alternatives report answers at least our four questions to restore some measure of trust in the process of accurately evaluating the risk that Line 5 poses to the Great Lakes and possible alternatives to it. Our Great Lakes depend on it.</p>
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A diver with the National Wildlife Federation examines Line 5, Enbridge's oil and gas pipeline running along the bottomlands of the Straits of Mackinac. National Wildlife Federation
An aging oil pipeline moves 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids per day along the bottomlands of the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron crash into each other in the heart of the Great Lakes.
<p style="">This pipeline—Line 5, built in 1953—is operated by the same company responsible for one of the largest inland oil spills in North American history: Enbridge. During that pipeline rupture, previously known cracks formed into a 6 foot gash which <a href="http://blog.nwf.org/kalamazoo-spill_infographic-3c_5-22-17/" target="_blank">spilled more than 840,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River</a> in 2010.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMzYwMzM2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODM3ODUxNn0.YCgzfJmz0X8iHJXfWOTQ0BGhmK8j1hSk4yAVKoyS3gY/img.jpg?width=980" id="b70be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2284ea939d568338d09404a580f92511" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small placeholder="add caption..." class="image-media media-caption">Endangered piping plovers nest along the Great Lakes shorelines which would be impacted by a Line 5 oil spill.</small><small placeholder="add photo credit..." class="image-media media-photo-credit">Vince Cavalieri / USFWS</small></p>
<p style=""><strong>What's Wrong with the Pipeline?</strong><br></p><p style="">There are numerous places along the underwater section of the pipeline where protective coating is missing, and for much of the history of the pipeline, sections of pipe were not properly supported on the Lake Michigan lakebed—where it gets pummeled by oscillating currents. In fact, those supports were not replaced until video from a <a href="https://www.nwf.org/" target="_blank">National Wildlife Federation</a> dive inspection revealed they were lacking. Recently, Enbridge itself <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/03/enbridge_line_5_delamination.html" target="_blank">confirmed that part of its outer protection coating was missing</a> from sections of the pipeline, and revealed in October 2017 that it has <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/10/27/enbridge-straits-pipeline-coating-michigan/807452001/" target="_blank">known about missing sections of coating since 2014 but failed to report the easement violation to state officials</a>. </p><p style="">An April 2017 National Wildlife Federation report revealed that the land-based sections of Line 5 have <a href="http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/News-by-Topic/Wildlife/2017/4-24-17-Line-5-Oil-Pipeline-System-Spanning-Michigan-Has-Had-29-Known-Spills.aspx" target="_blank">leaked at least 29 times since 1968, spilling more than 1 million gallons of oil</a>. We cannot risk a spill in the Straits, which a 2016 University of Michigan study estimates could put up to <a href="http://blog.nwf.org/2016/03/oil-spills-could-impact-over-700-miles-in-the-great-lakes/" target="_blank">700 miles of shoreline</a> at risk depending on current and weather conditions, with up to 150 miles impacted in any one spill, risking a 17,000-square mile spill zone.</p><p style="">Additionally, the pipeline has been operating without an adequate spill response plan, as required by the Clean Water Act. Due to this, the National Wildlife Federation sued the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in January 2017, <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/01/05/line-five-pipeline-lawsuit/96213688/" target="_blank">challenging this illegal operation of the pipeline</a>.</p>
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</p><div id="e2ced" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="S4MHG01576663963"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="918959835772784640" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Old, Hidden Pipeline at the Bottom of the Great Lakes https://t.co/BSFIAmiYic @waterkeeper @FreshWaterCLE</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/918959835772784640">1507932072.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p style=""><strong>What's at Stake?</strong><br></p><p style=""><strong></strong>At risk are the fish and wildlife of the Great Lakes, the drinking water relied upon by citizens, and the region's recreation and tourism economy which supports the northern Michigan way of life. So it should be no surprise that two-thirds of Michiganders oppose the continued operation of the pipeline under the Straits, as reported by a <a href="http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/News-by-Topic/Wildlife/2016/5-9-16-New-Poll-Michiganders-Oppose-Oil-Pipelines-Under-Great-Lakes.aspx" target="_blank">2016 EPIC-MRA poll</a> commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation.</p><p style="">Of particular note is the threat to the endangered piping plover shorebird. Piping plovers nest in the summer along the sandy beaches of the Great Lakes, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated critical habitat for piping plovers which falls within the spill zone risk identified by the University of Michigan.</p><p style=""><strong>What's Being Done About It?</strong></p><p style="">The State of Michigan <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2017/06/29/michigan-attorney-general-calls-shutdown-645-mile-pipeline-under-straits-mackinac/439376001/" target="_blank">released a report on alternatives to Line 5</a> on June 29, while the week before it scrapped a risk analysis due to a conflict of interest arising from an employee of the firm hired to do the analysis also working on a separate project for Enbridge.</p><p style="">In September, Michigan's Pipeline Safety Advisory Board <a href="http://midwestenergynews.com/2017/10/10/the-long-game-how-michigan-could-be-building-a-case-to-close-line-5-enbridge-straits-of-mackinac-pipeline/" target="_blank">authorized a panel of academic experts</a> from Michigan's universities, led by Dr. Guy Meadows of Michigan Technological University, to resume the risk analysis.</p><p style="">"This is a positive step in getting the state the actionable information it needs to decommission Line 5," said Mike Shriberg, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Regional Center, and a member of the Pipeline Safety Advisory Board when the academic study was approved. "Engaging top academic minds will ensure that Michigan's residents and resources will be prioritized."</p><p style=""><a href="https://online.nwf.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2457" target="_blank">Demand</a> Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder act to keep the Great Lakes safe!</p><div style=""><strong></strong></div>
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By Conor Mihell
At dawn, I launch my kayak and paddle into a velvety expanse of turquoise water. Here, in northern Michigan's Straits of Mackinac, Great Lakes Michigan and Huron meet like the middle of an hourglass. To the east, the rounded form of Mackinac Island is the centerpiece of an archipelago in Lake Huron.
According to an Ojibwe creation story, this is Mishee Makinakong, the Great Turtle, whose surfacing shell became a refuge for plants and animals as floodwaters surged in the days before time. Today, droves of ferries buzz to and from the island, a bustling summer tourist destination replete with kitschy fudge shops and horse-drawn carriages.
<p>I'm paddling south, dwarfed by the Mackinac Bridge, a monolithic five-mile-long ribbon of green steel and gray concrete that connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. Lake Michigan sprawls westward. Its watery horizon shows the telltale dance of rising winds just as a wave splashes over my deck, reminding me to put away my camera. This isn't a place to multitask.</p><p>Currents deflect my course as I approach a towering bridge support. It's like paddling on the ocean, with steep waves and a strengthening tidelike flow. I angle my bow to compensate. Whitewater reflects from the concrete pillar, and eddies swirl in its wake. Even on this sunny June morning, the conditions hint at a destructive violence that makes me nervous.</p><p style="">Almost directly beneath my kayak runs Enbridge Line 5, twin 64-year-old <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipelines</a> at the bottom of the lakebed. Line 5 transports 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily for 645 miles through Wisconsin and Michigan to Canada. Enbridge, the Canadian oil transportation giant, operated Line 5 inconspicuously until 2010; that's when its sister pipeline, Line 6B, ruptured, pouring a million gallons of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tar-sands">tar sands</a> bitumen into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan. It was the largest land-based oil spill in U.S. history. Suddenly, the peril posed by vintage infrastructure carrying petrochemicals through the heart of North America's greatest supply of freshwater loomed very large.</p><p style="">University of Michigan hydrologist Dave Schwab has concluded that the Straits of Mackinac is "the worst possible place for an oil spill in the Great Lakes." At any given time, one million gallons of petroleum products are contained in the 20-inch pipes that run along the lakebed. If one ruptured, oil would disperse with the currents that slosh back and forth through the straits. In Schwab's worst-case scenario, 720 miles of lakeshore would be devastated.</p><p style="">The U.S. <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">Environmental Protection Agency</a> predicts that in the event of a spill, no more than 40 percent of the oil could be recovered by deploying booms and "in-situ burning"—lighting surface slicks on fire, a technique used in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The success rate would plummet in the winter, when the Straits of Mackinac are sheathed in feet of ice. This apocalyptic vision was enough to convince more than 60 municipalities and all 12 of Michigan's Native American tribes that Line 5 should be decommissioned. Even Republican state attorney general Bill Schuette called for a timeline to shut down the pipeline.</p><p style="">"We know that Line 5 will ultimately be decommissioned," said David Holtz, the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter chair and the coordinator of Oil and Water Don't Mix, a grassroots coalition of pipeline opponents with 30,000 supporters. "The only question is, will it be decommissioned before or after it ruptures?"</p><p style="">Line 5 is a product of the post–World War II construction boom, when oil companies installed pipelines across the country to fuel an increasingly global economy. "Michigan was the shortest path to get oil to market," Holtz explained. "We get all the risk; Enbridge gets the reward."</p><p style="">For Enbridge's part, spokesperson Michael Barnes said that Line 5 is "vital to the people of Michigan, who need energy to heat their homes and power their industries." (Holtz contends that the company has never documented this claim.) In the five years following the Marshall disaster, Barnes said, the company spent nearly $5 billion on maintenance, inspection, and leak detection: "This is the largest, most comprehensive and sophisticated maintenance and inspection program of any pipeline system in the world."</p><p style="">As for the underwater pipelines at the Straits of Mackinac, Barnes said, "Recent inspection reports show that Line 5, from an engineering and integrity perspective, is like new and in excellent condition."</p><p style="">Retired Dow chemical engineer Ed Timm has taken it upon himself to debunk such rosy claims. Timm, a resident of nearby Harbor Springs whose dark ponytail and youthful swagger belie his 72 years, started studying the pipeline and checking out Enbridge's claims out of curiosity. He dug up early construction journals documenting the hasty process whereby pipelines were "pulled," as the engineers called it, across the straits. He plotted modern imagery alongside original blueprints to show how lakebed sediments have shifted drastically over time, placing stress on sections of pipe. And he tabulated modern-water-current data to prove that the Straits of Mackinac are capable of producing double the 2.25-mile-per-hour currents envisioned by the original plans.</p><p style="">Timm also discovered a 2016 technical report that he calls a "smoking gun." The operating-easement agreement for Line 5 between Enbridge and the state of Michigan mandates that there be no unsupported spans longer than 75 feet. According to engineer Mario Salvadori, who reviewed the design, "The pipe must not be allowed to span a valley of more than 140 feet." But the 2016 report, conducted by the Ohio-based engineering firm Kiefner and Associates, mentions unsupported spans of up to 286 feet, indicating that over time the pipeline has shifted from its moorings. Timm showed me a graph of how the pipeline's resiliency diminishes across increasing lengths of unsupported spans. Just like a bent paper clip, he said, a pipeline with inadequate support will become fatigued as it flexes back and forth in moving water. "At that distance a steel pipeline basically turns into a noodle." </p><p style="">For Native Americans in the Great Lakes region, Line 5 touches a cultural nerve. The area a spill might affect coincides with tribal fishing areas and encompasses the watery heart of the indigenous creation story.</p><p style="">On Lake Michigan's east shore, the Grand Traverse Band operates a couple dozen boats, whose captains and crews make their livelihoods fishing year-round, said Desmond Berry, the band's natural resources manager. Fish is a staple of the indigenous diet and is recognized in the tribe's traditional clan system. "We are a fish nation," Berry said.</p><p style="">The Grand Traverse Band is one of five Chippewa and Ottawa tribes with commercial operations in the Mackinac Straits area. They harvest more than three million pounds of whitefish and lake trout annually. Commercial and recreational fishing on the Great Lakes contribute $2.5 billion to Michigan's economy, with tourists spending $660 million annually in the counties straddling the Straits of Mackinac, supporting 7,500 local jobs. "If there were a spill," Berry said, referring to the slogan on the state's license plate, "'Pure Michigan' would cease to exist."</p><p style="">Safeguarding freshwater was at the core of efforts to stop the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline">Dakota Access Pipeline</a> at Standing Rock and is also at the root of Native American opposition to Line 5. Little Traverse Bay Bands member Jannan Cornstalk takes her responsibility as a water protector seriously. "Women have the ability to bring life into the world through our bodies," she said. "An embryo is held in a sack of water inside of us. That's our connection to the water."</p><p style="">Cornstalk was shocked when she learned about the sunken pipelines at Mackinac Straits. Since 2015, she's organized Labor Day demonstrations to coincide with a popular Mackinac Bridge walk, which includes canoe and kayak flotillas and, this year, an arts and culture festival. "I believe our water is in crisis," she said, pointing to the contaminated <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water">drinking water</a> in Flint, which led to a federal state of emergency in 2016. "Clean water is a basic human right. Without it we are nothing."</p><p style="">The water calms and my mind wanders as I paddle back to shore. After the flood in the Ojibwe creation story, Sky Woman, the mother of humanity, settled on the Great Turtle's back and summoned the animals to help rebuild the earth. One at a time, the strongest swimmers—Beaver, Fisher, Marten, and Loon—plunged into the water, diving deep in search of soil. Each returned to the surface empty-handed and ashamed.</p><p>Then diminutive Muskrat volunteered. The other animals snickered, but Muskrat dove in anyway and stayed underwater an exceedingly long time. "The Muskrat floated to the surface more dead than alive, but he clutched in his paws a small morsel of soil," recounted the late Ojibwe historian Basil Johnston. "Where the great had failed, the small succeeded."</p><p style="">Sky Woman spread the modicum of soil on the turtle's back and infused the new world with the breath of life. Turtle Island grew, teeming with grasses, flowers and trees. Finally, Sky Woman gave birth to the first Anishnabeg—the people—whom she instructed to live in harmony with all of creation, living and yet unborn.</p><p style="">The Mackinac area exerts an energy that pulls at the conscience of indigenous people and newcomers alike. A 2016 poll revealed that nearly two-thirds of Michigan voters do not support oil pipelines in the Great Lakes. Holtz hopes the state government will soon have a moment of reckoning like he did five years ago, when he represented the Sierra Club in an initial meeting to discuss Line 5 with other environmentalists. Holtz had recently retired from a career in media and "wasn't looking for a fight." Then he spent an autumn weekend alone at the straits. "I drove across the bridge and looked over the water," he recalled. "I decided I didn't want to be responsible for not stopping an oil spill in a beautiful, wonderful place that I love. I don't want that to be my legacy."</p><p style=""><span></span><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-6-november-december/feature/aging-oil-pipeline-underneath-great-lakes" target="_blank">SIERRA</a> magazine.</em></p>
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