Opposition to Great Lakes pipeline project endures

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(The Center Square) – Environmental groups are continuing in their opposition to the Great Lakes Tunnel Project, which is slowly making its way out of regulatory limbo.

"Around 40 million people get their drinking water from the Great Lakes," Debbie Chizewer, Earthjustice managing attorney, told The Center Square. "This tunnel project gambles with this precious American resource to pad the profits of a Canadian company and primarily supply Canadians with oil and gas. Every person who benefits from swimming, fishing, or drinking from the Great Lakes should speak up."

At the end of August, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy ended its period of public comment over the project. It is now moving forward with its official permitting process.

The proposal for the Great Lakes Tunnel Project is a long-sought-after upgrade to the 72-year-old pipeline.

The transmission line is owned by Canadian company Enbridge and goes 645 miles from Superior, Wis., through the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario. It moves more than 500,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids daily.

The proposed changes would move a section of the pipeline into a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac, which is the 4-mile wide waterway connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, dividing Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The pipeline currently lies on the bottom of the Straits.

The Bay Mills Indian Community has been challenging the project for years, joining Democrats in calling for the complete closure of Line 5. Earthjustice, the nation’s largest nonprofit public interest environmental law organization, is currently representing the tribal community.

“Enbridge’s oil tunnel project is a mad science experiment in the middle of the Great Lakes designed to keep its failing pipeline operating for another 99 years,” Chizewer said. “The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy should protect Michigan’s people and the Great Lakes by denying the permits for this disastrous project. Michigan should continue to pursue its efforts to decommission Line 5 instead.”

Chizewer also expressed concern with the possible environmental risks both during and after construction.

“Constructing the tunnel project will mean six years of truck traffic, light pollution, dust, and noise on the north and south side of the Straits of Mackinac,” she said. “Once built, the tunnel would allow oil and gas to keep flowing through the Great Lakes for another century, contributing 87 million metric tons of carbon emissions each year. So even if you’re not directly affected, your children and your grandchildren will be.”

Enbridge disagrees with that assessment, stating that the project will make Line 5 more reliable, while protecting the integrity of the gas supply chain to Michigan.

“The Great Lakes Tunnel will be bored through rock, as much as 100 feet below the lakebed—virtually eliminating the chance of a pipeline incident in the Straits,” it stated.

Last week, three Northern Michigan Republican state representatives also joined together in issuing a statement in support of the project.

They argued the continued operation of Line 5 provides not just energy, but also jobs. They also addressed environmental concerns.

“Enbridge is going above and beyond to mitigate all potential risks with their operation by proposing a significant investment in our state that would simultaneously protect our environment and secure this key pipeline for many decades to come,” they said. “Enbridge has proven its plan is safe and necessary; it's time we get this project approved and the work started.”

In June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a report which determined that the Line 5 tunnel project would have a “beneficial cumulative effect” on Michigan and its environment by reducing the risk of an oil leak.

While the report found there might be some “direct, short-term, detrimental impacts” during construction on the local environment and recreation, most “environmental consequences would be short-term with the effects resolving once construction is completed.”

This comes as the seven-year project, which has yet to break ground, is currently being expedited as a result of President Donald Trump’s day one executive order declaring a national energy emergency.

Under that order, Trump said that to solve high prices and remedy the “numerous problems” with America's energy infrastructure, the delivery of energy infrastructure must be “expedited” and the nation's energy supply facilitated “to the fullest extent possible.”

Chizewer told The Center Square that Michigan does not need the Line 5 pipeline or the Great Lakes Tunnel Project.

“Michigan should not jump through hoops and risk its greatest resource for a pipeline its residents do not need,” she said. “Science, economics, and the law are on our side.”