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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit Friday to shut down a pipeline that carries oil under a channel connecting two of the Great Lakes.
Whitmer’s office has notified Canadian company Enbridge Inc. that it is revoking an easement granted 67 years ago to extend an approximately 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of the pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac. The revocation takes effect in 180 days, when the oil flow has to stop.
“Enbridge has consistently refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on it for clean water and good jobs,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “They repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring the structural issues that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk.
“Most importantly, Enbridge has placed the people of Michigan at an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic Great Lakes oil spill that could devastate our economy and our way of life.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit Friday to enforce Whitmer’s decision. Another pending case that Nessel filed last year targets the pipeline as a public nuisance.
Enbridge said there was “no credible basis” for Whitmer’s action.
“Line 5 remains safe, as envisioned by the 1953 easement, and as recently validated by our federal safety regulator,” said Vern Yu, company president for liquids pipelines.
Line 5 is part of Enbridge’s Lakehead System, which transports oil from western Canada to refineries in the United States and Ontario. The pipeline transports approximately 23 million gallons (87 million liters) per day between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, passing through parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.
The submarine section under the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, is divided into two pipes 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter. Enbridge says they are in good condition and have never leaked.
Environmentalists say they are vulnerable and that the closure of Line 5 should be part of a global effort to reduce the use of climate-warming fossil fuels.
“Line 5 remains exposed to uncontrollable and powerful forces, including exceptionally strong currents, lake bottom scour, new anchor and cable shocks and corrosion,” said Liz Kirkwood of For Love of Water.
Enbridge entered into an agreement with the government of the day. Rick Snyder, a Republican, in 2018 to replace the underwater part with a new pipe that would be housed in a tunnel to be drilled through the bedrock under the straits.
The company is seeking state and federal permits for the $ 500 million project, which is unaffected by Whitmer’s stop order.
Environmental activists, Indigenous tribes and some elected officials have started pushing to shut down Line 5 after another Enbridge pipe spilled at least 843,000 gallons (3.2 million liters) of oil in the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan in 2010.
The pressure increased as the company reported gaps in the protective coating and installed supports when erosion opened up large spaces between the pipe sections and the lake bed.
An anchor dragged by a commercial tug and barge dented both pipes in April 2018. One of the pipeline supports was damaged this summer, apparently by a boat cable.
In a notice of termination, Whitmer’s office said the easement should not have been granted in 1953. Placing the pipes under a busy shipping lane without a protective cover violated the state’s duty to protect interests. of the public in the waters and shallows of the Great Lakes, according to the document.
He referred to a report from the Michigan University of Technology that said oil spilled in the Strait could harm fish and foul hundreds of miles of beaches, dunes and wetlands.
The advisory stated that Enbridge had repeatedly violated a requirement that pipelines rest on the lake bed or have other supports at least every 75 feet (22 meters). Spaces exceeding the threshold were detected as early as 1963 and most have never been treated, he said.
Enbridge has repeatedly defended the operation of the pipeline, saying that the coating deficiencies do not pose a serious threat. He installed more than 120 brackets to improve stability and stepped up patrols and other measures to prevent anchor strikes.
The company said closing Line 5 would lead to crude oil shortages for refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and eastern Canada, as well as propane shortages in northern Michigan. . It would also increase oil shipments by rail or truck, Enbridge said.
“Today’s decision would kill jobs and increase fuel costs,” said Geno Alessandrini of the Michigan Laborers Union, who has joined industry groups in criticizing Whitmer’s decision. “It’s the last thing Michigan needs as we strive to weather the coronavirus pandemic.”
Republican State Senator Jim Stamas said the governor sided with “environmental extremists” instead of “working families in northern Michigan.”
U.S. Democratic Senator Gary Peters, a member of the Senate committee that oversees the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, endorsed Whitmer’s decision and said he would work with officials “to quickly assess alternatives to Line 5 while continuing to hold Enbridge accountable ”.
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