The Canadian company Enbridge is moving forward with plans to build a $500 million oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. doug4537 / E+ / Getty Images
The Canadian company Enbridge is moving forward with plans to build a $500 million oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, which runs between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. The oil transportation company said it would go ahead with plans despite an ongoing lawsuit with Michigan, according to Kallanish Energy.
<p>Enbridge Inc. has hired two companies to build the pipeline, which will run beneath the channel that links Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The construction will replace twin pipes that have been under the Straits of Mackinac in Northern Michigan since 1953, as <a href="https://apnews.com/4495eb45bee93dbb079e03fe5d006b4c" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported.</p><p>Michigan's Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, has appealed to the state's Court of Appeals to stop the construction. A lower court decided in October that an agreement between Enbridge and former Republican Governor Rick Snyder was legal and could proceed. The Michigan Court of Appeals decided not to halt the project while it considers the case, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/4495eb45bee93dbb079e03fe5d006b4c" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the existing lawsuit, Enbridge says it expects construction to start next year and for a new tunnel to be in service by 2024, according to <a href="https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/content/news/Enbridge-picks-2-contractors-for-tunnel-project-in-Straits-of-Mackinac-568554041.html" target="_blank">WLUC</a> in Michigan.</p><p>The pipeline drew criticism from some of the Democratic presidential candidates. Last summer, Bernie Sanders <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1154477042680901635" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that the Line 5 tunnel should be shut down, noting that Enbridge's 6B pipeline spilled 1.2 million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River a decade ago. "Today, with the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a> worsening, we must <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutDownLine5?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#ShutDownLine5</a> pipeline in Michigan and ban all new fossil fuel infrastructure. What we need is a Green New Deal," Sanders added to his tweet.</p><p>At the end of February, prior to dropping out of the race, Elizabeth Warren also recognized the threat the Enbridge construction posed, <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1232776960742449154" target="_blank">tweeting</a> "Michigan's Line 5 pipeline is a threat to millions who rely on the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/great-lakes" target="_self">Great Lakes</a> for clean water and a healthy economy." She added, "Let's #ShutDownLine5 and build a 100% clean energy future."</p>
<p>Enbridge said that its success in court so far gave it the confidence to move forward with the project. "We feel like it's time now for Enbridge and the state to work together and keep the project moving," said Ryan Duffy, an Enbridge spokesman.</p><p>The Line 5 tunnel carries 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids every day between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. A near 4-mile segment divides into two pipes that run beneath the Straits of Mackinac, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/4495eb45bee93dbb079e03fe5d006b4c" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>Besides the Kalmazoo River spill ten years ago, an Enbridge gas pipeline exploded in spectacular fashion two years ago. That pipeline in British Columbia exploded from stress and corrosion. As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-pipeline-enbridge-inc/corrosion-caused-2018-enbridge-gas-pipeline-blast-canadian-agency-idUSKBN20R2M3" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported, "Police photos from a helicopter showed a nine-meter-deep crater and dozens of scorched evergreen trees at the site."</p><p>Enbridge claims that it has done a thorough study of the sediment under the Straits of Mackinac and that it will be able to build the Line 5 tunnel safely and efficiently, according to <a href="https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/enbridge-provides-update-on-line-5-project-expected-to-start-construction-in-2021" target="_blank">Up North Live</a>.</p><p>However, critics of the project do not agree with Enbridge's assessment.</p><p>"We recommend that the authority looks at Line 5 holistically at the entire pipeline infrastructure in Michigan," said Ashley Soltysiak, policy and program coordinator at the advocacy group Tip of the Mitt Watershed, to <a href="https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/enbridge-provides-update-on-line-5-project-expected-to-start-construction-in-2021" target="_blank">Up North Live</a>. "The four miles in the Straits of Mackinac can't be separated from the rest that poses a risk to citizen's public health and safety."</p><p>For Love of Water, an advocacy group, argued that Enbridge did not seek authorization for the project through the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act as required under a common-law doctrine, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/4495eb45bee93dbb079e03fe5d006b4c" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>Bypassing those laws is "one of the most egregious attacks on citizens' rights and sovereign public trust interest in the Great Lakes in the history of the state of Michigan," said Jim Olson, the group's president, to <a href="https://apnews.com/4495eb45bee93dbb079e03fe5d006b4c" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p>
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Birds fly over Lake Erie. Residents of Toledo, a city on the shores of heavily polluted Lake Erie in the U.S. state of Ohio, voted to give the lake rights of nature last year. A local farm responded by filing a lawsuit claiming this violated the rights of agribusinesses. Jessica Hetrick / EyeEm / Getty Images
"We see ourselves not as an owner of wild rice but a symbiotic partner and a parallel entity from the Creator," says Frank Bibeau, a lawyer from the Anishinaabe indigenous group in the U.S. and Canada.
<p>Harvesters use flailing sticks to beat the wild rice — or manoomin, by its Anishinaabe name — and release grain into the air. "A good portion of the rice gets sent out in all directions to reseed the rice. Maybe half of it or a little more falls into the canoe for food," Bibeau explains. "So we are part of the natural reseeding process ourselves."<em></em></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/environmental-protection-should-nature-be-given-rights-enshrined-in-law-a-52186866/a-52186866?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em></p>
<p>Seeking ways to block an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil">oil</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" rel="noopener noreferrer">pipeline</a> through the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Great-Lakes" rel="noopener noreferrer">Great Lakes</a> ecosystem where his people and the rice have thrived together for generations, Bibeau designed legislation granting wild rice its own rights under tribal law.</p><p>According to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) that advised Bibeau on the legislation, manoomin is the first plant in the world to be granted rights. But it joins a growing number of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers" rel="noopener noreferrer">rivers</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests" rel="noopener noreferrer">forests</a>, and characterizations of nature as a whole, that are protected by "rights of nature" laws around the world.</p>
Indigenous Approaches Written Into Law
<p>"Conventional environmental laws are really about regulating how we use nature," says Mari Margil of CELDF. "The consequences of that have been so devastating that people in different parts of the world are saying we need to make a fundamental shift in our relationship with nature."</p><p>With the idea that indigenous peoples are the most reliable custodians of our planet now repeated by politicians and environmental NGOs alike, giving nature rights suggests a way their approaches might be adopted by broader society.</p><p>It was in this spirit that Ecuador became the first country to enshrine the rights of nature — personified as Pachamama, the Andean earth goddess — in its constitution, in 2008.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Bolivia">Bolivia</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Uganda" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uganda</a> have since enshrined the rights of nature in their constitutions, and <a href="https://celdf.org/2019/10/media-release-rights-of-nature-constitutional-amendment-introduced-in-swedens-parliament/" target="_blank">an amendment</a> was recently proposed for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Sweden" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sweden</a> to do the same.</p>A Healthier Relationship With Nature?
<p>Asserting that nature has intrinsic rights isn't just a legal tool to prosecute polluters. It also challenges the "ecosystem services" approach to environmental protection that costs up the economic value of clean air, water and biodiversity — and even the concept of conservation areas.</p><p>As a national park, land surrounding the Whanganui River in New Zealand was off limits to the Iwi Maori tribe who had hunted and fished there sustainably for generations. In 2017, the dispute was resolved by making the river a person in its own right, owned by neither the state nor the tribe.</p><p>Maori law professor Jacinta Ruru sees it as a major breakthrough that New Zealand law now reflects the relationship the country's indigenous people have with the environment — one that sees no division between what's good for people and the planet.</p><p>"My tribe — we'll talk about your veins in your arms as being like the riverways of the land," explains Ruru. "So you're seeing the health and wellbeing of who you are as a person, your health, your own happiness, as entirely connected with the health and wellbeing of the environment around us."</p>Strategic Compromise
<p>Ruru says it's too soon to judge the ecological impact of the Whanganui River's change of status. And it remains to be seen if the Rights of Manoomin will be any match for the interests invested in the pipeline.</p><p>In Ecuador's case, the new constitution has been used to block plantations and road-building that threatened forest, but it hasn't proved enough to transform an entire system geared toward economic development; cases brought by indigenous activists have ended in Pachamama's rights being trumped by those of <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55914fd1e4b01fb0b851a814/t/5748568c8259b5e5a34ae6bf/1464358541319/Kauffman++Martin+16+Testing+Ecuadors+RoN+Laws.pdf" target="_blank">businesses</a>.</p><p>Critics also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2514848618763807" target="_blank">point out</a> that making rivers and forests honorary people owes less to any indigenous deification of nature than to the Western rights discourse.</p><p>"There is a strategic relationship between indigenous communities and the rights of nature," says Mihnea Tanasescu, a political scientist who authored a book on the subject in Ecuador, "but there is not necessarily an intrinsic philosophical affinity, because rights are a very Western legal category."</p><p>Michelle Maloney of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance is developing legislation based on Aboriginal traditions that ground all law in relationships to the land. She says nature rights are a way for different cultural perspectives to work together.</p><p>"The legal personhood argument is getting traction around the world," she says, because "the average Westerner-lawyer type understands it as a construct."</p><p>The Ganges and Yamuna rivers now have legal personhood, as do each of Bangladesh's hundreds of rivers. The <a href="https://celdf.org/advancing-community-rights/rights-of-nature/rights-nature-timeline/" target="_blank">Colombian judiciary</a>, meanwhile, has repeatedly ruled that the rights of rivers of forests had been violated by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pollution" rel="noopener noreferrer">pollution</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/logging" rel="noopener noreferrer">logging</a>.</p><p>These laws draw on specific local indigenous ideas. Yet a single U.S.-based organization, CELDF, has been instrumental in drafting nature rights legislation around the world.</p>
<p>CELDF worked on the world's first rights of nature law — a local ordinance to <a href="https://celdf.org/2015/08/tamaqua-borough/" target="_blank">stop toxic waste dumping</a> in Pennsylvania — in 2006, and Margil says close to 40 nature rights bills have now been passed in the U.S. Many are brought by activists with no indigenous ties frustrated by a legal system that doesn't recognize damage to nature as a crime until it affects human health or livelihoods.</p>
Conversation-Changer
<p>Last year, one such case made international headlines. Residents of Toledo, a city on the shores of heavily polluted Lake Erie in the U.S. state of Ohio, voted to give the lake rights. A local farm responded by filing a lawsuit claiming this violated the rights of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agribusiness" rel="noopener noreferrer">agribusinesses</a>. </p><p>Since the bill was more or less quashed by Ohio state legislature, activists are fighting to revive it from legal limbo. But if nothing else, their struggle has drawn attention to the priorities of a legal system that treats nature as property but corporations as legal persons.</p><p>"Often people just don't think about these invisible systems that govern our world," Maloney says. "So as a starting point — and a conversation- and discourse-changer — the rights of nature is very powerful."</p>From Your Site Articles
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Chicago skyline on July 22 as high winds continue to push the waters of Lake Michigan over the top of the pedestrian and bike trail along the lakefront in Chicago. Raymond Boyd / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Every fall, I take my environmental studies class camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan. Some years the beach extends more than three meters to the water. This year, in many spots, there was no beach at all.
<p>
The story is the same throughout the Great Lakes. During my summer research trip to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, I lost track of the number of submerged docks and buildings; swimming near the shore of Lake Huron was a bad idea because of the high risk of electrocution from inundated boathouses that still had the juice flowing.
</p><p>
Water levels in the Great Lakes have always fluctuated. But <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-sends-great-lakes-water-levels-seesawing/" target="_blank">climate change</a> is throwing past patterns out of whack. Almost every Great Lake reached record levels in 2019. And <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/10/11/great-lakes-water-levels-record-michigan-flooding/3919348002/" target="_blank">the latest studies predict</a> that levels might reach even higher in 2020.
</p><p>
But instead of engineered solutions, we should be concentrating on getting out of the way.
</p>
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Biggest Impacts
<p>My research looks at the ways that Canada and the U.S., along with the bilateral <a href="https://press.ucalgary.ca/books/9781773851075/" target="_blank">International Joint Commission</a>, have tried to understand and control water in the Great-Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin for well more than a century.</p><p>Both countries have made large diversions in and out of the Great Lakes, such as the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-past-and-future-of-the-chicago-sanitary-and-ship_b_59934c9be4b0eef7ad2c01c0" target="_blank">Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal</a>, as well as numerous smaller diversions and canals.</p><p>In the 1950s, dams along the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-River-Creation-Lawrence-History/dp/0774826444" target="_blank">St. Lawrence</a> transformed this gigantic river into a hydropower pool and navigation channel and, controversially, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07011784.2018.1475263" target="_blank">to help regulate water levels in Lake Ontario</a>. Control works in the St. Marys River partially regulate Lake Superior. Niagara Falls is <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/niagara-falls-june-1969-dewatering.html" target="_blank">treated like a tap</a> to generate both hydropower and beauty. Then there is the 100-plus years of perpetually <a href="https://greatlakesdredging.net/publications/1996-case-study-solec-paper-changing-land-use/" target="_blank">dredging channels and harbours</a> for navigation.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAwOTk5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzQwOTM3OX0.fHxLdz0fSy5nCcSWafhUpT_FSoUdXq-fhzQOWSYGkZg/img.jpg?width=980" id="a438c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="22d3ef2bce99f5fe15738d4f818f06ad" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Lake Michigan's high water levels consumed beaches at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2019. Daniel Macfarlane / Author provided
<p>Cumulatively, these anthropogenic interventions have likely changed water levels on the lakes by less than one meter.</p><p>Meanwhile, communities have steadily encroached on the water. We turned seasonal sandbars into subdivisions. Metropolises like Toronto and Chicago extended their footprints hundreds of meters into the lake.</p><p>And it's not only large dams, diversions and cities that have impacts. Thousands of small individual actions add up, such as the breakwalls, retaining walls and the rip-rap (graded stone or crushed rock) property owners erect to protect boathouses, cottages and other structures.</p><p>Collectively, we might be the proverbial fool who built our house on sand — often literally.</p><p>These engineered interventions have myriad ecological impacts and unintended consequences, such as invasive species and impaired water quality. They've also instilled a societal hubris that we can — and should — control water on a large scale in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system.</p>
Natural Supply
<p>However, natural forces — rain, snow, ice cover, temperature, evaporation — are the biggest determinant of water levels in the Great Lakes.</p><p>As long as humans have kept records, <a href="https://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/Great-Lakes-Information/Great-Lakes-Information.aspx#ICG_ETH_22302" target="_blank">Great Lakes water levels have oscillated</a>. Depending on which of the Great Lakes one considers, the maximum range of water level fluctuations has been about one to two meters in the past 150 years. For example, very high water occurred in the early 1950s, early 1970s, mid-1980s and mid-1990s.</p><p>Now, pushed by a changing climate, the swings in levels that used to take several decades are occurring in half a decade. Instead of a gradual rise and fall, the lakes are going from extreme to extreme.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAwOTYxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjg4MjkyMH0.ltxtHegFQONvIaLD9xOAd6TIlpaj3kJ_UpX0P3L_L6I/img.jpg?width=980" id="3bda2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d73bba3419f1a5c413438750e72fb4cf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />High water levels inundate a waterfront home on the St. Lawrence River in May 2017.
Mike Beauregard / Flickr / CC BY
<p>For example, Lakes Michigan and Huron hit record lows in 2013, and docks on Georgian Bay didn't reach the water. To compensate, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed putting riffles, basically water speed bumps, on the bottom of Lake Huron's outflow at the St. Clair River.</p><p>Now Lake Huron is close to record high levels and docks are under water. If those St. Clair riffles had been installed, the water levels on Lakes Huron and Michigan would be even higher today. This is the type of short-sighted thinking we need to avoid.</p>
Moving Back
<p>Water needs breathing space. We need to move out of the way, rather than try to move water out of our way.</p><p>Humans have removed, impaired or destroyed many of the lakes' natural buffers, which accommodate fluctuating water. We've eradicated shoreline wetlands and beaches and covered them with concrete.</p><p>If a property along the Great Lakes is getting wet now, it will almost certainly be wetter in the future. While there is some scientific uncertainty about exactly what climate change will do to water levels, the extreme highs and lows will get worse. Volatility is the new normal.</p><p>Like climate change, when it comes to addressing Great Lakes levels, the biggest hurdles aren't scientific — they are political, economic and social.</p><p><a href="https://www.tvo.org/video/great-lakes-great-problems" target="_blank">Any new infrastructure</a> along Great Lakes shorelines must be flexible, adaptable and resilient.</p><p>But we must also realize that the answer isn't more infrastructure. Infrastructure is too often the cause of our environmental issues.</p><p>We need to remove structures entirely and avoid building anything near the water's edge. This will have the added benefit of making more of the Great Lakes accessible to everyone. Since governments zoned vulnerable areas for construction, government funding should be provided.</p><p>We should use the opportunity to <a href="https://www.watershedcouncil.org/benefits-of-wetlands.html" target="_blank">restore natural shorelines and wetlands</a>. These provide many benefits for both water quality and water quantity. In terms of the latter, they can serve as water retention areas, while wetland plants provide erosion control.</p><p>This is all going to be very hard for many people to hear — there will be major resistance. But not moving is going to cost more in the long run. We think we can control water levels, but we need to think differently.</p><p><em>Reposting with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/great-lakes-flooding-the-warning-signs-that-homes-must-be-moved-122697" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Algae blooms in Lake Erie. NASA
By Anne Schechinger
Over the Fourth of July holiday, many of us love to beat the heat in a favorite lake, pond or river. But this year, vacationers from coast to coast will have to look out for a potentially record-breaking number of algae blooms.
<p><span></span></p><p>So far this year there have been news stories about 107 algae outbreaks, compared to just 63 this time last year. That's a 70 percent increase. EWG's <a href="https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2019_algal_blooms/map/" target="_blank">interactive map</a> tracks news reports of blue-green algae blooms across the country since 2010, and this year is on track to have the most so far.</p>
<p>Recreating in or near water stricken by an algae bloom can lead to <a href="https://static.ewg.org/reports/2018/algalblooms/img/EWG_AlgalBloomGraphics_Table_C05.pdf?_ga=2.134167053.285444611.1562007818-1730736141.1562007818" target="_blank">serious</a> health consequences. Short-term exposure — whether through skin contact or ingestion — to the toxins sometimes produced by algae outbreaks has been linked to sore throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and liver damage.</p><p>These outbreaks don't just affect peoples' health, they also hurt their wallets. Algae keeps people away from businesses near affected lakes, such as marinas and restaurants.</p><p><a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2019/06/10-questions-and-answers-about-the-toxic-algae-bloom-in-lake-hopatcong.html" target="_blank">Lake Hopatcong,</a> in New Jersey, is currently suffering the biggest bloom ever recorded in the state. Hopatcong Mayor Mike Francis <a href="https://nj1015.com/harmful-slime-invades-njs-largest-lake-devastating-economy/" target="_blank">says</a> it could have devastating impacts on the health of residents and his town's economy. </p><p>In many cases, algae outbreaks are preventable. Reducing the amount of chemicals that run off farm fields can greatly reduce the number and severity of blooms in agricultural areas.</p><p>Lake Macbride, in Iowa, is an <a href="https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/2019/06/26/too-toxic-swim-lake-macbride-cautions-visitors-against-swimming/1570541001/" target="_blank">example</a> of a lake surrounded by farmland that has algae bloom and E. coli problems. Mandated agricultural conservation practices could go a long way toward cleaning up water bodies like Lake Macbride. </p><p>If you plan a lake outing this holiday, it's vital to know what to look for to figure out whether a toxic blue-green algae bloom is present in the water. Before your next trip to a lake, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsgg2rqPKEE&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">our new video</a> to find out.</p>
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The Lady K tow boat kicks up a wake full of green algae a few hundred feet from the city of Toledo's Water Intake on Lake Erie, for testing on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Ty Wright / The Washington Post / Getty Images
By Valerie Vande Panne
In February, the voters of Toledo, Ohio, passed a ballot initiative that gives Lake Erie and those who rely on the lake's ecosystem a bill of rights. The idea is to protect and preserve the ecosystem so that the life that depends on it — humans included — can have access to safe, fresh drinking water.
<p>On the surface, it seems pretty logical: Humans need water to survive, and if an ecosystem that is relied on for water—in this case, Lake Erie — is polluted (in this case, with algae), then the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (or LEBOR) would ensure the rights of humans would come before the polluters (in this case, big agriculture).</p>
<p>Except, that's not what's happening.</p><p>Rather, in a perhaps unsurprising move, the state of Ohio has at once both acknowledged rights of nature to exist, and taken them away, with a line written in, of all things, the state <a href="https://www.ocj.com/2019/05/state-budget-clears-house-moves-to-senate/" target="_blank">budget</a>: "<a href="https://tinyurl.com/yxot2uxk" target="_blank">Nature or any ecosystem</a> does not have standing to participate in or bring an action in any court of common pleas."</p><p>"It's not surprising that the Ohio legislature has the shameful distinction of being the first in the country to specifically name ecosystem rights — trying to quash them rather than taking the lead in recognizing them," the <a href="https://celdf.org/2019/05/media-statement-the-first-state-in-u-s-history-has-mentioned-legal-rights-of-nature/" target="_blank">Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund</a> (CELDF), which was involved in the initiative and is experienced with rights of nature laws and actions, said in a press release. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights has received international acclaim.</p><p>Last week, a judge ruled Toledoans for Safe Water, the local group behind the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, cannot defend the voter-passed initiative in a lawsuit brought by a factory farm against the city over the initiative. Yet, the state of Ohio is being permitted to support the farm in the lawsuit against the city.</p><p>Big agriculture, of course, is the primary source of nutrient pollution that has caused algae blooms that have denied half a million people access to clean, safe drinking water, sometimes for days at a time.</p><p>Markie Miller, Toledo resident and concerned citizen with Toledoans for Safe Water, said the new barriers to implementing LEBOR shows the citizens are on to something. "Obviously we're doing something right, because we're scaring the <a href="https://ofbf.org/" target="_blank">Farm Bureau</a>."</p><p>As the lawsuit is set to proceed as of this writing, the judge said there was no need for the two sides (the farm or the city) to file briefs, and would, rather than hold a hearing, have a phone call on May 17. The call would be closed to the public, and without briefs, the public — who passed the initiative by more than 60 percent of the vote — will not have access to the arguments being used.</p><p>Meanwhile, according to a recent report released by the United Nations, "one million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival," the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/05/06/one-million-species-face-extinction-un-panel-says-humans-will-suffer-result/" target="_blank">Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The report specifically attributes the die-off to human activity. Worse, it points to an inevitable collapse of the natural world humans rely on for food and water.</p>
<p>"Nature's current rate of decline is unparalleled, and the accelerating rate of extinctions 'means grave impacts on people around the world are now likely,'" reported the Washington Post.<br></p><p>"All the studies say we need drastic action. If we think the courts are going to save the plants or the animals," said Tish O'Dell, Ohio community organizer with CELDF, "they aren't."</p><p>O'Dell points to the fact that the people who passed the law aren't part of the lawsuit trying to prevent its implementation, and to the fact that the state of Ohio is intervening on the side of the factory farm, "Not on the side of the people — and denies the people and the lake the right to intervene."</p><p>Laws should reflect our values, O'Dell continues. She supports a culture shift to curb the rapid decline of the natural world humans rely on. The change may take time, O'Dell said, saying, "It's like [with] segregation. That lunch counter moment, it wasn't in the courts. It was the pushing and the pushing," that shifted the courts. "That's what we have to do. As we get more and more people saying nature should have rights, doing their own laws and their own actions, it'll start shifting things."</p><p>While this shift could take time, we don't have 150 years to push or wait for nature to have the right to exist.</p><p>"We talk about climate change. It's climate crisis. In my opinion, they're committing crimes against humanity. It's homicide and ecocide. We have the scientific studies these species will go extinct. It's homicide because humans won't be able to live," O'Dell said. "We need to start getting more blunt about what is happening."</p><p>"People think the corporation is the problem," she continued, but cautions against blaming the farming industry or the oil and gas industries for our current situation: "It's your own government that's the problem, because they're protecting them."</p><p>It seems, then, we are in a time when corporations are considered people and their rights are preserved, and the rights of people — actual humans — to have access to the single thing they absolutely must have to survive, clean drinking water — are denied.</p><p>"If they think they've prevented this movement, all they've done is fired people up," Miller added.</p>
<p> <em> Valerie Vande Panne is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/local-peace-economy/" target="_blank">Local Peace Economy</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in Columbia Journalism Review, In These Times, Politico, and many other publications.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/local-peace-economy/" target="_blank"><em>Local Peace Economy</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Plastic bags in landfills can be carried by wind and caught in trees. European Parliament / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
By Martin LaMonica
From its arrival decades ago, plastic has transformed modern life. But in 2018, the alarm over the plastic pollution crisis sounded louder than ever. On Earth Day, the United Nations issued its first State of Plastics report, calling for more recycling and better ways to manufacture and manage the material in its many forms.
At The Conversation, we took a broad view of plastic, working with scholars to explain not only the environmental and health effects but also its cultural contribution and the industries that handle plastic goods—and waste.
<h3>1. We Are Guinea Pigs</h3><p>
People now regularly hear reports of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">sea animals</a> discovered with stomachs full of human-discarded plastic. But much of the plastic pollution in the oceans is <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/microplastics">microplastics</a>—many times smaller than the width of a human hair.
</p><p>
Environmental epidemiologist John Meeker from the University of Michigan writes that the health effects of these microplastics, which are also found in many consumer products, are largely unknown. He walks through what scientists do know and <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-guinea-pigs-in-a-worldwide-experiment-on-microplastics-97514" target="_blank">notes</a> that "given that human exposure to microplastics is widespread, results from animal studies are certainly a cause for concern and an important factor for risk assessment."
</p><h3>2. Rivers and Lakes</h3><p>
Many people probably know about the great Pacific garbage patch, a massive accumulation of trash between Hawaii and California. But plastics are accumulating <a href="https://theconversation.com/tons-of-plastic-trash-enter-the-great-lakes-every-year-where-does-it-go-100423" target="_blank">in lakes and rivers as well</a>, write Matthew J. Hoffman and Christy Tyler from Rochester Institute of Technology. They describe their research that uses computer models to measure how much is piling up in the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/great-lakes">Great Lakes</a> (about 10,000 tons per year) and to predict where it will go.
</p><p>
They found that because of winds, plastics do not accumulate in a giant patch as they do in the Pacific Ocean, but that introduces the question: Where is it going? "If we can accurately track different types of plastic pollution after they enter the water," they write, "we can focus on the types that end up in sensitive habitats and predict their ultimate fate." Their study found that much of it sinks to the bottom, which sheds light on what species are being affected.
</p><h3>3. Better Materials?</h3><p>
Are plant-based plastics the answer to the plastic trash problem? Biochemist Danny Ducat from Michigan State says it's not that simple. He describes the different types of bio-plastics and how recycling systems will need to change to handle plant-based plastics.
</p><p>
"Bio-based plastics will still languish for decades or centuries if they are thrown in the trash and buried in landfills … By contrast, compostable plastics are largely degraded within three months inside industrial compost facilities, where conditions are managed to promote aeration and temperatures are often substantially higher because of all of the microbial activity," Ducat <a href="https://theconversation.com/bio-based-plastics-can-reduce-waste-but-only-if-we-invest-in-both-making-and-getting-rid-of-them-98282" target="_blank">writes</a>.
</p><h3>4. The Impact of China's 'National Sword' Policy</h3><p>
About 75 percent of the plastics discarded in the U.S. end up in landfills. And in 2018, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/china">China</a> threw the plastic recycling industry in disarray by sharply cutting the amount of foreign scrap material it would accept.
</p><p>
This has resulted in stockpiles of unrecycled trash and left municipalities considering <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-garbage-ban-upends-us-recycling-is-it-time-to-reconsider-incineration-98206" target="_blank">changes to their recycling practices</a>. University of California, Berkeley researcher Kate O'Neill sees China's rejection of our contaminated trash as an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-plastic-waste-crisis-is-an-opportunity-for-the-us-to-get-serious-about-recycling-at-home-93254" target="_blank">opportunity to innovate</a>.
</p><p>
"Critiques of recycling are not <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/30/magazine/recycling-is-garbage.html" target="_blank">new</a>, and critiques of recycling plastic are <a href="http://www.no-burn.org/recyclingisnotenough/" target="_blank">many</a>, but I still believe it makes sense to expand, not abandon, the system. This will require large-scale investment and, in the long term, implementing upstream policies, including product bans," O'Neill writes.
</p><h3>5. In the Hands of Designers</h3><p>
Certainly, there's no shortage of things to worry about when it comes to plastic. But let's also consider some of many conveniences this wonder material has brought.
</p><p>
Marsha Bryant from the University of Florida teaches a course in Tupperware products and their emergence in 1950s America and writes <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-slag-to-swag-the-story-of-earl-tuppers-fantastic-plastics-100564" target="_blank">about how it demonstrates</a> "how a compelling, innovative design can have mass appeal." And <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kiersten-muenchinger-524075" target="_blank">Kiersten Muenchinger</a> from the University of Oregon tells the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-breast-implants-to-ice-cube-trays-how-silicone-took-over-our-kitchens-100646" target="_blank">story of how silicone</a>—originally conceived as an insulating material—has transformed our kitchens over the past two decades.
</p><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/plasticseries2018-57270" target="_blank">To read the entire series on plastics, click here</a>.</em></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><p><em>Martin LaMonica is the deputy editor of The Conversation.<br></em><em><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-complicated-relationship-with-plastic-5-essential-reads-109123" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em></em></p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109123/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
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The controversial pipeline tunnel approved Wednesday would drill in the bedrock under the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan. Visions of America / UIG / Getty Images
A controversial plan to dig a tunnel under the Great Lakes in order to replace aging oil and natural gas pipelines was given the final go-ahead Wednesday, Crain's Detroit reported.
<p>The Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/line-5-pipeline-2623216308.html" target="_self">created just last week by outgoing Gov. Rick Snyder</a>, approved a deal between the state of Michigan and the Canadian company Engridge to replace its aging <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/line-5" target="_self">Line 5</a> pipelines with the tunnel, which will be drilled into the bedrock beneath the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="72550" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KZN0BC1576664118"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1075596019998605312" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Planned Great Lakes #Line5 oil pipeline tunnel clears final hurdle; critics vow to fight tunnel project, seek shutd… https://t.co/9rskXqoVww</div> — Chad Livengood (@Chad Livengood)<a href="https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/statuses/1075596019998605312">1545277049.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Environmentalists and indigenous groups criticized the decision and the process that led to it, which they say was rushed through during a lame-duck legislative session despite the fact that incoming Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel both promised to shut down the 65-year-old Line 5 pipelines during their campaigns<br></p><p>"We debated on whether to even come today to give legitimacy to this," Mike Ripley of the <a href="https://www.1836cora.org/" target="_blank">Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority</a> said at the meeting at which the decision was announced, as <a href="http://www.michiganradio.org/post/mackinac-straits-corridor-authority-approves-enbridge-tunnel-agreements?fbclid=IwAR0IP2i8bMe52D7HjnCzUXyb-Pym6I2ZeLpNph5S16Jmhwb7OcBKKwA1Dpo" target="_blank">Michigan Radio reported</a>. "We don't think this is a legitimate board, and we're very concerned about the undemocratic process in the last month that's gone on in the lame duck Legislature in Michigan."</p><p>The council approved the tunnel after only a five day comment period, and one of its three members was only appointed three days before Wednesday's meeting. At the meeting, 51 people spoke, with roughly equal numbers opposing and supporting the tunnel, but critics said the debate was a "sham" because the bill Snyder signed creating the panel also mandated that it approve the tunnel if it met certain criteria also outlined in the bill.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="60919" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="JQ976U1576664118"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1075453223073447936" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#MSCA member says they are required by law to sign the agreement today regardless of public comment #line5</div> — brittneybuti (@brittneybuti)<a href="https://twitter.com/brittneybuti/statuses/1075453223073447936">1545243003.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Some unions and Enbridge employees spoke in favor of the tunnel, saying it would provide jobs and be less likely to cause <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-spill" target="_self">oil spills</a> than the existing pipelines, which critics are worried will rupture, contaminating <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> and even polluting the Lakes' shoreline. Snyder echoed those supporting arguments in his remarks following the decision, as Craig's Detroit reported.<br></p><p>"Today's actions will result in the removal of the oil pipeline from the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, maintain critical infrastructure connections between our peninsulas, provide energy security for residents of the Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan and create good-paying jobs," Snyder said.</p><p>But the <a href="https://www.nwf.org/" target="_blank">National Wildlife Federation</a> <a href="https://medium.com/nwf-great-lakes/snyder-tunnel-deal-only-prolongs-existing-line-5-threat-to-the-great-lakes-2a879d537c6c" target="_blank">said in a statement</a> ahead of Wednesday's meeting that the deal with Enbridge failed even the one environmental promise Snyder had made, since it allows the aging pipelines to run indefinitely while the tunnel is being built and allows the company generous leeway to delay construction in the case of various events. </p><p>"This backroom deal sets no end date for the twin pipelines currently sitting in the open waters of the Great Lakes. The Snyder administration is trying to disguise the status quo as progress," <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Great-Lakes" target="_blank">National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes Regional Center</a> Conservation Partnerships Manager Beth Wallace said.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b0b1e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="UJF1DO1576664118"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1075528697183170560" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“This backroom deal sets no end date for the twin pipelines currently sitting in the open waters of the Great Lakes… https://t.co/HHVIcWbGIK</div> — National Wildlife Federation - Great Lakes (@National Wildlife Federation - Great Lakes)<a href="https://twitter.com/NWFGreatLakes/statuses/1075528697183170560">1545260998.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Opponents also expressed concern about locking the state into building new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> infrastructure as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-2610866229.html" target="_self">scientists warn</a> that humans need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to effectively combat <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>.<br></p><p>"We know we need to soon be transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner alternatives," Petoskey, Michigan resident Frank Hawthorne said, according to Michigan Radio. "How then, is an expensive Straits tunnel, which is likely going to cost much more and take far longer to build than estimated, how is that sending anyone the message that Michigan is a forward-thinking and acting leader in responding to the challenges of the future?" Hawthorne asked.</p>
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Dan Sedran
By Corey Mintz
There's nothing in the fridge at Akiwenzie's Fish & More processing facility. The 918-square-foot building, adjacent to Natasha and Andrew Akiwenzie's house on the shores of Georgian Bay, Ontario, sits empty and dark. Out-front, gill nets lie on the ground, unused for months.
<p>When these tore during fishing, Andrew Akiwenzie used to mend the 1,800 yards of net by hand, spending three days straight in his basement, stripping out the webbing and tying a knot every eight inches. The $3,000 worth of equipment, once essential to his sustenance and livelihood, now lies discarded, along with Akiwenzie's hopes for the future, buried under a growing pile of almond-coloured fall leaves.</p><p>Over the past few years, environmental changes have diminished fish harvesting in this part of the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula. Last summer, things got so bad that Akiwenzie decided to quit fishing for a living. Still grieving but seeking meaning in the loss, Akiwenzie teamed up with other fishers in the area to create the Bagida-waad Alliance and gather scientific data about what has happened to their waters.</p><p>Akiwenzie, who has been fishing by hand without any mechanical lifting device for the past 15 years, didn't come from a fishing family. His mother was a bootlegger. She bought beer and whiskey in town and sold it at a markup on the reserve. "Being a bootlegger meant that there were a lot of salty dogs around the table," recalls Akiwenzie.</p><p>The fishers who bought from her, looking to become preferred customers, began to teach her grandson about fishing. An uncle would occasionally take him out in a rowboat with no motor. "As a young lad, rowing a boat for my uncle and being able to bring a fish home to feed the family kept us alive," he says.</p><p>Back then, Indigenous people of the area were banned from commercial fishing. But they would sell fish via a "party line" (a shared telephone connection), which made it easy for people to hop on and find buyers. In 1993,<a href="https://www.saugeenojibwaynation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/R-V.-Jones-and-Nadjiwon.pdf" target="_blank"> Justice Fairgreave</a> affirmed the commercial fishing rights of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), which paved the way for the province to recognize SON's exclusive commercial harvesting rights in the region.</p><p>Since 2003, Akiwenzie has made his living by getting up at 4 a.m., building a fire by the lake, fishing on days when it wasn't too windy, and cleaning his harvest in the processing facility. In 2008, he upgraded the building, at a cost of $20,000, to slope the floors toward the drains in compliance with health standards. Frustrated with the market price fluctuations of wholesalers, he began to retail himself, driving back and forth to Toronto (at least seven hours) to supply restaurants and sell directly to customers at farmers' markets.</p><p>But over the past eight years, Akiwenzie and other commercial fishers have noticed weather pattern changes in the area. There used to be five good days to go fishing every week, but increased winds have winnowed them down to two. Also, the fish weren't where they were supposed to be, with whitefish near the shore, switching places with trout in deep water and then disappearing entirely. And the fish he did catch weren't the same, with trout emerging from the lake with big heads and skinny bodies. The fishing community, which used to come within annual reach of their million-pound quota, was barely clearing 400,000.</p><p>"In the Great Lakes, all of our fish from the shoreline have gone into the deep, where it's cold," said Austin Elliott, a local who has fished for Akiwenzie. "If the thermal plane changes, the fish will come back. If it doesn't and the water stays warm, we're screwed."</p><p>By this summer, Akiwenzie had had enough. Fishing was becoming difficult, unprofitable and unsafe. There was little reason to go out anymore. When his boat's motor broke, it was going to cost him at least $12,000 to replace it. Instead, he packed up his nets.</p><p>"For the past two months, I've spent a lot of time grieving," said Akiwenzie. "For 15 years, I've fed 150 families, and I got to know people and faces. All of a sudden, to not do that anymore is like losing 150 people in your family all at once."</p><p>Today, chefs from Toronto—who Akiwenzie had supplied with fish in better days—have come here to cook a meal of pickerel, wild rice and smoked duck for 180 people at a drop-in lunch at the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation community center before touring the lake to learn about what's happening.</p><p>"I've fished Ontario lakes and rivers my whole life," said Missy Hu, a former chef de cuisine at Fabbrica in Toronto. "The alliance is key because we all know that there is something wrong. If we don't act now, traditional fishing communities, Canadian fishing culture and the Great Lakes may never recover."</p><p>Akiwenzie has no doubt that what is happening to his environment, his livelihood and his community is a result of climate change, but he lacks the data to prove it. "I may not have the education level behind me, but I have the knowledge base and have seen it firsthand. I've been on the waters for 15 years, and I've only seen biologists twice."</p><p>Fortunately, the alliance has its own marine scientist, John Anderson, formerly a researcher for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and a professor at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. Anderson got involved after retiring to nearby Owen Sound, where he was frustrated by his community's climate-change denial. "I'd go to curling with lawyers, truck drivers, farmers and doctors," Anderson recounted of his re-entry into his hometown. "The climate<em> is</em> changing here, but I kept talking to people who didn't know that or denied it. I put together my first data set, and I built it back to 1880."</p><p>For some areas in the region, he found environmental data (temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind "gusts" and direction) that dated back to 1880 (with gaps for the First World War) and often ended in 2006, when Environment Canada stopped collecting data. Finding local measurements to fill in gaps in the federal records, Anderson began to assemble a data set. "Once I had the first one, I could see clear trends here," he said, "so I built a second data set." So far, he has constructed data sets for the waters in nearby Delhi, London, Goderich, Owen Sound, North Bay and Sudbury.</p><p>Proud of the data collection, Akiwenzie knows that this won't restore his livelihood or the life he built here. "I'll fight anything, but this was a battle that had no boundaries and no enemy," said Akiwenzie. "There was nobody I could challenge."</p><p>Even though Akiwenzie is done fishing, his gathering of scientific evidence might lay the groundwork for future fights over policy in the region. "That's why we started our group, Bagida-waad, which means 'they cast a net' in our language. We have to just watch. Mother Nature is the one who's in charge."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2018/12/environmental-changes-are-killing-the-livelihood-of-great-lakes-fishermen/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em></p>
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Mackinac Bridge from Straits of Mackinac. Gregory Varnum / Wikimedia Commons
Michigan's outgoing Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation on Wednesday that creates a new government authority to oversee a proposed oil tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac to effectively allow Canadian oil to keep flowing through the Great Lakes.
The controversial tunnel will encase a replacement segment for Enbridge Energy's aging Line 5 pipelines that run along the bottom of the Straits, a narrow waterway that connects Lakes Huron and Michigan.
<p>
The new law creates a three-member Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority that is required to enter an agreement with the Canadian oil company on the construction and operation of the tunnel before the end of the month.
</p><p>
<span></span>Snyder signed <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(oxa2fpcx5vzuwkkrdo14hey0))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectname=2018-SB-1197" target="_blank">Senate Bill 1197</a> just a day after the GOP-controlled Michigan Legislature approved the bill—a move seen as a lame-duck rush before Democrats Gretchen Whitmer and Dana Nessel take over as governor and attorney general respectively, as the <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/12/12/snyder-enbridge-line-5-tunnel-bill/2288251002/" target="_blank">Detroit Free Press</a> noted.
</p><p>Both Whitmer and Nessel made campaign promises to shut down Line 5 over fears that the 65-year-old twin pipelines could spill and contaminate the Great Lakes, a source of drinking water for tens of millions of people. Line 5 has spilled <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/enbridge-line-5-spills-2379938636.html" target="_self">1.1 million gallons of oil</a> along the right of way since 1968.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5741c1fb57a5afe07c706ce892dee1e0"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZiWWkg7UufQ?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Dana Nessel for Michigan Attorney General- SHUT DOWN LINE 5!</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiWWkg7UufQ" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>
Environmentalists say Snyder's move has effectively allowed Line 5, which pumps up to 23 million gallons of oil and liquefied
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/natural-gas" target="_self">natural gas</a> a day, to run for another decade while the tunnel is being built.
</p><p>
Under the new plan, the existing pipelines will be replaced with a new tunneled pipeline under the bedrock of the Straits of Mackinac. The project will take seven to 10 years to complete and cost as much as $500 million. Enbridge will foot the bill.
</p><p>
"We are deeply disappointed Gov. Snyder approved legislation that will keep oil pumping through the damaged Line 5 Pipeline for another decade or more," Lisa Wozniak, executive director at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, said in an
<a href="https://michiganlcv.org/news/michigan-lcv-gov-snyders-line-5-tunnel-continues-threat-of-disastrous-oil-spill/" target="_blank">online statement</a>.
</p><p>
"On Nov. 6, the people of Michigan made their position clear by electing candidates who pledged to keep oil pipelines out of our Great Lakes and protect our drinking water. We will continue to advocate, communicate and fight to protect our water and oppose oil pipelines in the Great Lakes as the new administration takes office," Wozniak added.
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.michiganradio.org/post/new-poll-says-most-michigan-voters-want-line-5-shut-down" target="_blank">A recent poll</a> by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA poll found 54 percent of Michigan voters want Line 5 shut down.
</p><p>
Snyder also appointed three members to the new Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority, Geno Alessandrini, Tony England and Michael Zimmer, who will each serve six-year terms.
</p><p>
No more than two members from the same party may serve on the panel. Snyder said both England and Alessandrini are Democrats. Zimmer is a Republican, according to the Detroit Free Press.
</p><p>
"We all understand the importance of bringing certainty to removing Line 5 from the waters in the Straits of Mackinac," Snyder said in an online
<a href="https://www.michigan.gov/snyder/0,4668,7-277-57577_57657-485290--,00.html" target="_blank">statement</a>. "By working together, they helped garner bipartisan support to ensure we are protecting the Great Lakes while securing better energy infrastructure for Michigan."
</p><p>
Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy said the company looks forward to working with the new authority.
</p><p>
"Replacing the Straits segment of Line 5 in a tunnel deep under the lake bed makes a safe pipeline even safer while ensuring a reliable and affordable energy supply to Michigan and the region," Duffy said in a statement, as quoted by
<a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/12/12/snyder-signs-bill-creating-line-5-tunnel-authority-appoints-3-members/2288225002/" target="_blank">The Detroit News</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b652c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0NUXK11576662606"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1048223369538232325" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Great Lakes 'At Risk' From Plan to Replace Aging Enbridge Pipelines, Environmentalists Argue https://t.co/etUxGvlp0x</div> — The YEARS Project (@The YEARS Project)<a href="https://twitter.com/YEARSofLIVING/statuses/1048223369538232325">1538750901.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly said that Line 5 has spilled 1.1 million gallons of oil "into the lakes" since 1968. The pipeline has never spilled into the lakes itself, but along the right of way. </em></p>
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Mackinaw Bridge, Michigan. Deb Nystrom / CC BY 2.0
By Douglas Bessette
A deal involving an aging oil pipeline in Michigan reflects the complex decisions communities across the country need to make to balance the needs for energy and safety with efforts to deal with climate change.
Gov. Rick Snyder and Enbridge, a Canadian company, have reached an agreement over a leak-prone pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the four-mile-long waterway that divides Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
<p>
Rather than shut the 65-year-old pipeline down altogether, as <a href="http://flowforwater.org/line5/" target="_blank">environmentalists are demanding</a>, or conduct routine maintenance, as <a href="http://www.enbridge.com/Line5" target="_blank">Enbridge desired</a>, Snyder is requiring Enbridge to <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/snyder/0,4668,7-277-57577_57657-479938--,00.html" target="_blank">replace the pipeline</a> at an estimated cost of up to $500 million without a deadline.
</p><p>
While the lakes, beaches and livelihoods vulnerable to harm from a potential spill are perhaps unique to Michigan, the question of what to do about a host of aging <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipelines</a> across the U.S. is not. <a href="http://insideenergy.org/2014/08/01/half-century-old-pipelines-carry-oil-and-gas-load/" target="_blank">Nearly half</a> of the nation's pipelines currently operating were built before 1960.
</p><p>
Amid <a href="https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/" target="_blank">rising oil and gas production</a>, there are hard compromises to make between ensuring an adequate energy supply, protecting public safety, and reducing the nation's reliance on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a>—a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-natural-gas-industry-is-leaking-way-more-methane-than-previously-thought-heres-why-that-matters-98918" target="_blank">key contributor to climate change</a>. But <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kIZnIqgAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">my research</a> suggests that there may be a straightforward way for both decision-makers and the public to make these choices.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODczMzc0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjMyNzU0N30.SBSrSKL8tOsfFW0rld94GuFy0A2fWABDEB3ERrclEyQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="807cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7bd87b3efff085477d4e954317566385" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
</p><p><strong>Millions of Miles</strong></p><p>
Approximately <a href="http://www.pipeline101.org/Where-Are-Pipelines-Located" target="_blank">3 million miles</a> of pipelines move crude oil, natural gas and other hazardous liquids across the U.S. Most crude oil pipelines traversing the center of the country transport oil from western Canada and North Dakota southward to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.
</p><p>
Much of this system dates back to the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/policy/downloads/quadrennial-energy-review-first-installment" target="_blank">economic boom</a> of the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, <a href="http://insideenergy.org/2014/08/01/half-century-old-pipelines-carry-oil-and-gas-load/" target="_blank">roughly half</a> of the crude oil pipelines operating today are at least 50 years old.
</p><p>
More of the natural gas pipelines that span the county are concentrated around the Marcellus Shale formation, in eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania. And 60 percent of the <a href="https://cms.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/annual-report-mileage-natural-gas-transmission-gathering-systems" target="_blank">319,000 miles</a> of pipelines currently transporting natural gas were <a href="https://www.ingaa.org/file.aspx?id=19307" target="_blank">installed before 1970</a>.
</p><p>
A recent <a href="https://www.energy.gov/policy/downloads/quadrennial-energy-review-first-installment" target="_blank">Department of Energy</a> report suggested that replacing just the cast-iron pipelines, which are the <a href="https://opsweb.phmsa.dot.gov/pipeline_replacement/" target="_blank">oldest and riskiest variety</a>, would cost <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/08/f25/QER%20Summary%20for%20Policymakers%20April%202015.pdf" target="_blank">approximately $270 billion</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d02ddc63d94efb7544db5392c7b380a4"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ic9NcKtEPGs?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
</p><p><strong>The Risks</strong></p><p>
Compared to hauling fuel by rail or truck, the <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11046/transmission-pipelines-and-land-use-a-risk-informed-approach-special" target="_blank">Transportation Research Board</a>, a nonprofit that serves as an advisory body to the White House, Congress and federal agencies, considers pipelines to be safer. Yet when pipeline accidents do occur, they are typically larger and impact the environment more directly than the alternatives.
</p><p>
When a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/18/massachusetts-natural-gas-explosions-pressure-ed-markey-elizabeth-warren-columbia/1345591002/" target="_blank">natural gas line exploded</a> in Massachusetts, where many pipes are over 100 years old, it destroyed 80 homes and killed one person. In 2012, another pipeline operated by the same company—Columbia Gas, <a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/PAR1401.pdf" target="_blank">this one built in 1967</a>, exploded.
</p><p>
That earlier accident in Sissonville, West Virginia, charred 800 feet of roadway along a nearby highway, wrecking three homes, and melted the siding on houses hundreds of feet away. Following an investigation, the <a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/PAR1401.pdf" target="_blank">National Transportation Safety Board</a> found many causes. Among them: corrosion and a lack of automatic or remote shutoff valves.
</p><p>
In 2010, <a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/PAR1201.aspx" target="_blank">one of Enbridge's Michigan pipelines ruptured</a>, spilling 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River. That pipeline was built in the 1960s, and made with the sorts of welding processes and protective coverings that have <a href="https://www.ingaa.org/Foundation/FDNreports/PipelineAge.aspx?source=generalSearch" target="_blank">not stood the test of time</a>. The cost to clean up that spill was more than <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/07/kalamazoo_river_oil_spill_time.html" target="_blank">$1 billion</a> and spurred concerns among Michiganders over the safety of the Straits pipeline.
</p><p>
A big spill in the Straits of Mackinac could result in oil polluting over 1,200 miles of shoreline, cause $1.3 billion in damage and cost $500 million to clean up, <a href="https://mipetroleumpipelines.com/document/independent-risk-analysis-straits-pipelines-executive-summary" target="_blank">Michigan Technological University</a> researchers estimate.
</p><p>
Following an <a href="https://mipetroleumpipelines.com/document/alternatives-analysis-straits-pipeline" target="_blank">independent risk analysis</a>, Snyder and Enbridge agreed that a replacement pipeline should be placed inside a tunnel and buried beneath the lakebed. Taking that step would substantially reduce the risk of a spill. But it will also take at least seven years to build. And the agreement assumes the Straits pipeline would <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04102018/oil-pipeline-shut-down-enbridge-line-5-straits-mackinac-michigan-election-snyder?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">continue to operate</a> during the new pipeline's construction.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODczMzkyMC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODgyMjgzMn0.6s-ojTWRdvAAxdWuta4MU5FQA4gzADiUclodprHGuF0/img.png?width=980" id="2dc56" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e67e2d482c10316e5a6d02f1f8dab7f3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
</p><p>
<strong>Fracking Boom<br>
</strong>
</p><p>
There's one good reason why old and dangerous pipelines aren't being shut down: the <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2015/04/02/pipelines-the-new-battleground-over-fracking/" target="_blank">emergence of hydraulic fracturing</a>, or <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking/">fracking</a>—the process by which water, sand and chemicals are injected underground at high pressures to crack rock and release the oil and gas trapped inside.
</p><p>
Despite concerns regarding <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/343/6172/733" target="_blank">methane leaks, water and air pollution</a> and even <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6142/1225942" target="_blank">earthquakes</a>, there's <a href="http://time.com/5187074/fracking-energy-oil-natural-gas/" target="_blank">no sign</a> that the fracking boom in oil and gas production over the next decade will slow.
</p><p>
The <a href="https://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Policy/Infrastructure/API-Infrastructure-Study-2017.pdf" target="_blank">oil and gas industry</a> anticipates production in places like <a href="https://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/new-natural-gas-plant-expansion-proposed-for-mckenzie-county/article_bfcb78a5-2f17-5619-b462-8a00200bce48.html" target="_blank">North Dakota</a> will keep growing over the next two decades.
</p><p>
According to the <a href="https://www.api.org/news-policy-and-issues/energy-infrastructure/oil-gas-infrastructure-study-2017" target="_blank">American Petroleum Institute</a>, building the pipelines to accommodate this increase in output would require annual investments between $12-19 billion. A 2008 report prepared for the Edison Foundation predicted that modernizing the national oil and gas transmission and distribution network would cost <a href="http://www.brattle.com/news-and-knowledge/publications/archive/2008" target="_blank">$900 billion before 2030</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODczMzkyNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjE3OTAyM30.5Ws1zUr0fF90N9pq-x_I5hfxnn7d6TtlxI4Di-A4uXw/img.png?width=980" id="f8c39" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5ed9831ea3dca37c56d722800b4681ed" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
</p><p>
<strong>Some Trade-Offs<br>
</strong>
</p><p>
As the battles over the <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-the-battles-being-waged-against-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-are-following-a-single-strategy-100930" target="_blank">Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines</a> have shown, opposition to new long-term fossil fuel infrastructure projects is growing. Replacing old dangerous pipelines with new ones is not easy—or fast, even if it might reduce risks and carbon emissions.
</p><p>
There is also growing evidence, such as the latest report from the UN's <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-1-5-report-heres-what-the-climate-science-says-104592" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> that instead of a bigger and better pipeline network, the U.S. needs a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43315645?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" target="_blank">new energy strategy</a>, aimed at ending reliance on fossil fuels altogether by 2050. The problem is that once pipelines are built, they typically last decades. Building new ones would further lock in dependence on fossil fuels.
</p><p>
A recent poll shows that <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/public-backs-action-global-warming-cost-concerns-muted/story?id=56549874" target="_blank">a majority of Americans support aggressive action on global warming</a>. But smaller numbers back some of the specific policies or actions that might take.
</p><p>
As <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518300223" target="_blank">my research</a> suggests, adopting a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pwrc/science/structured-decision-making?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects" target="_blank">more comprehensive and logical process</a> for making decisions could provide a way forward. This process helps communities identify their most important objectives first and then evaluate options according to those specific goals. It's an approach that ensures that what's most important—climate change, jobs and protecting ecosystems, for instance—gets addressed.
</p><p>
It could become handy the next time a state and a corporation tangle over whether or not to replace a big aging pipeline–even when this debate is less contentious than the one about Michigan's Straits of Mackinac.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b652c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="87V86S1576663332"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1048223369538232325" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Great Lakes 'At Risk' From Plan to Replace Aging Enbridge Pipelines, Environmentalists Argue https://t.co/etUxGvlp0x</div> — The YEARS Project (@The YEARS Project)<a href="https://twitter.com/YEARSofLIVING/statuses/1048223369538232325">1538750901.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Douglas Bessette is an assistant professor of community sustainability at Michigan State University.</em><br></p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: Douglas Bessette does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-great-lakes-pipeline-dispute-points-to-a-broader-energy-dilemma-104537" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em></p><p><em><em>Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly stated the estimated cost to replace the pipeline to be $500 billion in the third paragraph. The correct figure is $500 million. </em><em></em></em></p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104537/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
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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>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</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>
<p></p>
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