Greg Awtry

Readers of The Alpena News, pay close attention to this decision before our Thunder Bay is covered in oil.

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality was established in 1995 to regulate environmental programs. It was renamed Environment, Great Lakes, Energy (EGLE) in 2019. Their Mission Statement is, “To protect Michigan’s environment and public health by managing air, water, air and energy resources.”

Now, EGLE has to approve or deny a permit to allow Enbridge to build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac to relocate the Line 5 oil pipeline. EGLE has no set date to make their decision, which should only take about five minutes, so I don’t understand the delay.

Why should it take only five minutes? It’s because approving the tunnel, which would begin by boring a 20-foot wide tunnel up to 370 feet below the lake surface, putting the Great Lakes in great danger. According to EGLE, one of their written values is “To take a strategic approach that accounts for the impacts of today’s actions on future generations.”

They do this by assigning duties to several divisions they have created, the most important being the Office of Clean Water Public Advocate (OCEPA). It states, “As a Great Lakes State, Michigan will uphold the highest standards for protecting, restoring and sustaining the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater source.” It goes on to say it will protect, restore and sustain the Great Lakes watershed, which includes all the Michigan’s rivers and streams that empty into the Great Lakes. It also “fosters water stewardship to solve the next generation of water challenges.”

Their Office of Climate and Energy “coordinates the state’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, “for the protections it will provide for our natural resources.”

Little is mentioned about EGLE’s energy responsibilities except for their Geologic Resource Management Division (GRMD) which,

“Oversees the development of fossil fuels ensuring the protection of natural resources, the environment, property and public health and safety.”

Under Michigan’s environmental laws, EGLE must consider the risk of an oil spill, environmental impacts and catastrophic scenarios. EGLE must evaluate if the project is likely to pollute, impair or destroy Michigan’s natural resources, including water. EGLE must determine that NO feasible and prudent alternatives exist. Approving this permit goes against everything EGLE is charged with protecting.

Governor Whitmer rescinded Enbridge’s easement to cross the Great Lakes. Enbridge has ignored it. Whitmer did this because these

pipelines, whether on the bottom of the Straits or in a tunnel, violate Michigan’s Public Trust Doctrine, which clearly states the people of Michigan own the lakebed where these pipes lay. Since We The People own the public lands and water, we in essence hire the State of Michigan to act as a trustee, ensuring our public lands and waters are protected forever.

Enbridge can build a pipeline around the Great Lakes, preferably on the eastern side of Lake Huron being that Line 5 carries Canadian oil through (not to) Michigan on its way to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada where it is refined into fuel to service eastern Canada. And as far as the liquid natural gas that Line 5 carries which is turned into propane, there are alternatives already being discussed on how to supple propane to the Upper Peninsula and Northern Lower Michigan.

President Trump “Fast-tracked” this project, cutting the environmental review time. He wanted to increase domestic production. Line 5 does neither. It’s not domestic, it’s foreign oil, and doesn’t increase oil production by a single drop.

Folks, the Great Lakes provide drinking water to 40 million people. The Lakes hold 80 percent of the world’s fresh surface water. The Great Lakes economic impact is in the hundreds of billions of dollars when you consider the commercial shipping lanes, commercial fishing, tourism and recreation. The number of jobs these businesses provide are far greater than the number of temporary jobs the tunnel would create.

Just the digging of the tunnel alone will result in five million gallons of drilling wastewater being dumped into the Straits every single day! Add to that Enbridge’s lack of drilling the standard number of boring samples to see what they would be drilling through. And finally, Enbridge and their subsidiaries have averaged one environmental violation every three months for 25 years, according to Violation Tracker! No way we should allow Enbridge anywhere near our Great Lakes.

The bottom line is simply this. Michigan does not need Line 5. The Canadian corporation Enbridge does, not us. Line 5 is 72 years old. It was supposed to have a lifetime of only 50 years, so even if a tunnel was put in, we are still left with over 640 miles of an aging and dangerous pipeline that has spilled nearly 30 times and over a million gallons of oil already. 

So it boils down to a risk-reward decision. EGLE, your responsibility is not to Enbridge, but to us, the people of Michigan and as you so often state, to the future generations of Michiganders. So, remember the consequences of your votes, then, discuss it for the five minutes you need to come to the only logical and responsible decision you can make. Deny this permit and preserve and protect the Great Lakes for all of us, forever.

Enbridge can move a pipeline. We cannot move the Great Lakes.

What’s you take? Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com. Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake.