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Enbridge Line 5, EGLE Has One Chance To Get This Right This are my written comments to EGLE’s open hearing on the Enbridge Line 5 tunnel project in the Straits of Mackinac.

The Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes Energy (EGLE) has a once in a lifetime decision to make, a decision that could affect all Michiganders who appreciate our Great Lakes, a decision that will have dire consequences for those involved in Great Lakes from commercial shipping and fishing, to tourism, recreation and preservation in the Great Lakes State of Michigan. Yes, EGLE has only one chance to get it right, and that decision that is irreversible, but should be a simple one and could be made in five minutes if they live up to their very reason they were created in the first place. Let me back up. By now I hope you are aware of the 73-year-old Enbridge Line 5 pipeline. You know, the one that lays in the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, just a mile or so west of the Mackinac Bridge. It was put there in 1953 and was only supposed to last 50 years. It’s 23 years past its life expectance and has already leaked thirty times spilling over a million gallons of oil. It’s 645 mile long, running from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario where nearly 90 percent of the oil is refined to service the needs of Eastern Canada. Now Enbridge wants to replace the four miles of pipe at the bottom of the Straits in a twenty foot wide tunnel dug about 370 feet below the water surface, which would still leave us with 641 miles of 73 year old leaky pipe. Now is where it gets tricky. Enbridge brags about how it has done all the work to build a safe tunnel, but they haven’t. First of all, they didn’t bore nearly enough test holes to see what conditions are below the lake bottom. Enbridge will also tell you they are drilling the tunnel through solid bedrock, which is not entirely true either. You see, there is some bedrock, but they won’t tell you there is also fractured rock and the remains of the ancient riverbed made of loose gravel and stones. They are also reluctant to discuss the methane gas that lies in the bottom lands, gas that is highly explosive. They also do not like to talk about the five million gallons of drilling wastewater that will be dumped back into the lakes every day while the tunnel drilling takes place for a number of years. And now, Enbridge needs the approval from EGLE to proceed, an approval based on the Clean Water Act and wetland permits. Now let’s back up again. The State of Michigan created EGLE to, “Protect Michigan’s environment and public health by managing air, water, land and energy resources, while taking a strategic approach that accounts for the impacts of today’s actions on future generations.” That’s EGLE’s mission statement, and we could stop right there knowing EGLE could never permit a dangerous oil pipeline to endanger the Great Lakes for this generation or the generations of Michiganders not even born yet. But I will go on. EGLE must protect the health of the Great Lakes. It oversees drinking water which 1500 Michigan communities rely on from the Great Lakes. It must mitigate (reduce) environmental contamination. It must promote clean energy. It must enforce environmental laws. Again, the decision to put a risky oil pipeline under the Straits goes against everything EGLE was created to do. Why are they stalling? And has EGLE even taken time to look at Enbridge’s environmental record? Well, I have. According to Violations Tracker, since 2000 Enbridge has had 109 environmental violations. That averages out to one every three months for the last 25 years. They have been fined nearly $300 million dollars for those violations. So aside from all the other reasons EGLE should deny the permit, one look at their record shows EGLE should never allow a corporation with that record anywhere near the Great Lakes. I will toss in one final reason the permit should be denied. Who owns the Straits of Mackinac and the bottom lands under the water? We do, the people of Michigan. Under Michigan’s Public Trust Doctrine, the waters and bottom lands belong to a trust owned by the people, and we ‘hire’ the state, which has a binding duty, to protect them for public use and enjoyment. So, here’s’ my bottom line. The Straits belong to us. EGLE admits its strategy is to take into consideration decisions made today and the effects it will have on future generations. EGLE exists not to approve projects like this, but to stop projects like this that put the Great Lakes in danger. Enbridge can tell us this will be a safe pipeline all they want but they can’t guarantee it will be failsafe. Why would we ever consider allowing our Great Lakes to be put in peril when there are viable alternatives to avoid any and all risks associated with a significant oil spill into one of America’s most valuable natural resources? To EGLE, I ask, will you live up to the responsibility and duty you have to the people of Michigan, or will you succumb to the pressure of a foreign corporation so they can pay their stockholders? I urge you to do what you were created to do by protecting and preserving the10,000 year-old Great Lakes for the next 10,000 years. Deny the permit. You only get one chance to get this right. Enbridge can move a pipeline. We cannot move the Great Lakes.

Agree or disagree? Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com