Michiganders who have not heard of Line 5, owned by Canadian corporation Enbridge, must be living in a dark tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac.

Line 5 is part of a pipeline system connecting Canada’s oil fields to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario. Unfortunately for Michiganders, the pipeline runs through the Upper Peninsula and lays on the bottom of the Straits just a mile or so west of the Mackinac Bridge.

The pipeline is 69 years old, has leaked over 30 times and spilled over a million gallons of oil in its lifetime. Enbridge now wants to build a 20-foot-diameter tunnel under the Straits and do away with the original Line 5, running a new pipeline through their tunnel.

Right now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing Enbridge’s application for a permit under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and the Clean Water Act seeking permission to discharge dredged or fill materials into the Great Lakes as well as structures or work that may affect navigable waters.

The larger questions are simply: Do Michiganders need the oil from Line 5? What would happen to gas prices in Michigan if Line 5 were to be shut down? And, equally important: Is Enbridge able to construct and operate the 20-foot-wide tunnel safely?

Do we need Line 5 oil?

No, since 95% of it goes to Sarnia, Ontario, Canadian refineries, then supplied to Canadian gasoline consumers. Why should we assume all the risk for an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac when we get no direct benefit? University of Michigan studies have detailed the catastrophic impact of an oil spill in the Straits and have concluded it is the most dangerous place in America to place oil pipelines.

What happens to Michigan gas prices if Line 5 closes?

In an ongoing court case regarding Line 5, Neil Earnest, president of an energy consulting firm filed by Enbridge, admitted gas prices in Michigan would increase only one-half of 1 cent if Line 5 was shut down. That’s only half of a penny, folks!

And finally, can Enbridge build and operate the 20-foot-wide tunnel safely?

That’s highly unlikely, given Enbridge’s disastrous safety and compliance record.

One can easily remember in 2010 when Enbridge’s Line 6, near Kalamazoo, spilled over a million gallons of tar sand oil into the Kalamazoo River, the largest inland oil spill in America. The National Transportation Safety Board would find Enbridge completely negligent and totally responsible for the spill. They were fined over $60 million and ordered to spend $110 million fixing up their pipelines.

But it doesn’t end there, not by a long shot. Violations Tracker, produced by Corporate Research Project for Good Jobs, tracks enforcement data from more than 400 federal, state, and local regulatory agencies and has been tracking Enbridge’s violations, and they are astoundingly bad in regards to environmental and health and safety practices. Since the year 2000, Violation Tracker states Enbridge has been fined 108 times, totaling over $272 million! And many of those violations were from Enbridge’s failure to comply with orders that exposed dangers, as was the case near Kalamazoo when the Pipelines and Hazardous Material Safety Administration warned Enbridge to fix corrosive seams in their Line 6. They didn’t, and a 6-foot seam ruptured and, for over 17 hours, Enbridge’s own personnel misread their own pipeline system failure data and pumped even more oil through the ruptured pipe.

As recently as 2018, Enbridge was fined $1.8 million for failure to live up to their pledge to improve pipeline safety on Line 5 in Michigan.

In 2019, Enbridge’s Line 13 spilled 1,386 gallons of diluents, a tightly toxic additive they use to dilute thick tar sand oil, most likely a substance called naphtha, a light hydrocarbon, which is laced with benzene that causes cancer and birth defects.

Then, last year, 2021, Enbridge was fined $3.32 million after Enbridge breached an aquifer during construction of Line 3, causing 24 million gallons of groundwater to flow out of the breach. Once again, the state says the breach happened in January and Enbridge never notified the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. This was not new to Minnesota, as, in 2010, Enbridge was fined $2.4 million for “failing to safely and adequately perform maintenance and repair activities, clear designated work areas from possible sources of ignition and to hire properly trained and qualified workers.”

Meanwhile, as their application is before the Army Corps, yet another fine from a 2019 explosion of an Enbridge natural gas pipeline in Kentucky, causing one death and five injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report blaming Enbridge’s lack of oversight by underestimating how degraded their pipeline was and it went on to say Enbridge did not follow standards and procedures ensuring safety.

You and I can argue the necessity of Line 5, but we can’t ignore the facts. Twenty percent of the entire world’s fresh water lies in our Great Lakes. We can’t move the lakes, but we can move pipelines, and pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac — either lying on the bottom or in an underground tunnel — is a disaster waiting to happen.

Any risk to these lakes, one of the world’s greatest natural wonders, is unacceptable.

Enbridge, you have alternate ways to get oil to Sarnia, Canada. Use them or build a new pipeline through Canada, avoiding the Great Lakes. Your history proves you cannot be trusted to construct, repair, maintain, or obey warnings and act responsibly and quickly to fix or report issues. Your typical press releases saying you regret the accidental incidents and that safety is your number one concern are no longer believable.

Those noncompliance, poor safety practices, and failures to report incidents go on and on.

Remember, over 108 fines since 2000. And now they want the Army Corps of Engineers to approve a massive tunnel under the Straits? If Enbridge was a hospital and you needed medical care, knowing their record, would you go to them? Not me!

I think Line 5 should be shut down and Enbridge’s application to build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac should be denied.

Readers, what’s your 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. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.