Take Action
Add your name to these public comments to be submitted to MDEQ on June 29, 2017, by signing the petition to the right.
Enbridge is attempting once again to upgrade its dangerous Line 5 oil pipelines in the Mackinac Straits without any public hearing that would examine the condition of these outdated pipelines.
When they tried this eight months ago, Enbridge ran into a solid wall of public opposition. Recent revelations that their pipelines have unsupported spans that exceed the maximum length allowed means there is a heightened risk of metal fatigue and failure.
Submit Your Public Comment: Sign this Petition
Like-New Pipelines?
Join us in asking the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) as part of its permit conditions to conduct a comprehensive review of Enbridge's Line 5 in the Straits before the company attempts to squeeze more life out of their aging pipelines.
Please note that submitting your public comment here has nothing to do with the Line 5 ballot proposal that is being circulated.
To the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality:
We are writing in reference to Enbridge’s joint application to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (“MDEQ”) and United States Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) (No. 2RD-DFDK-Y35G) to install 22 anchor supports on the Line 5 pipelines in the Mackinac Straits.
We urge the MDEQ to reject Enbridge’s application as incomplete and to hold a public hearing as provided in Section 32514 of the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act (“GLSLA”) and R 322.1017 (Rule 17), along with proper notice and additional time for public comment. The magnitude of public interest in Line 5 and the Great Lakes warrants a public hearing on this important matter.
Enbridge’s application is deficient for the following reasons:
- it fails to demonstrate the potential adverse harm from a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes;
- it fails to demonstrate feasible and prudent alternatives to Line 5, which include a range of alternatives related to Enbridge’s ongoing expansion of oil transport throughout the Great Lakes region;
- it fails to demonstrate compliance with the 1953 Easement with the State of Michigan and to evaluate Enbridge’s piecemeal expansion of Line 5; and
- additional information about the integrity of the entire submerged Line 5 infrastructure is critical to protecting the public’s paramount interests in the Great Lakes.
Under Michigan’s GLSLA, the MDEQ cannot grant approval of this permit unless the following standards are addressed: a) a determination that the environment will be minimally harmed and that those adverse impacts will be mitigated; and (b) there is no feasible and prudent alternative to the proposed activity that will protect the public health, safety and welfare. Enbridge’s application fails on both counts.
As an immediate emergency measure or condition of Enbridge’s application, MDEQ should suspend or reduce the transport of the rate of flow of crude oil through Line 5 in the Straits to immediately reduce the pressure and risk from the twin-pipelines in the Straits pending further proceedings; in the alternative, order the installation of anchors to reduce spans without supports below 140 feet pending further proceedings with the express condition that no assurance of any final permit under the application without a demonstration of compliance with state law.
Enbridge incorrectly claims its proposed patchwork response to Line 5’s major structural defects is “routine maintenance” when in reality the requested anchor supports will further the continued expansion of Line 5 and Line 6B in southern Michigan to largely transport Canadian oil to Canadian refineries and overseas markets.
Moreover, the recent disclosure of the Kiefner Report reveal that Enbridge has for years, perhaps decades, systematically violated the provision of the 1953 Easement with the State of Michigan that limits unsupported stretches of Line 5 to 75 feet for the pipeline’s structural integrity and longevity. This neglect coupled with the Straits powerful underwater currents likely has caused metal fatigue damage. This is particularly concerning since Line 5 currently transports 540,000 barrels per day (bbls) - 80 percent over its original design capacity.
With no reliable model to predict lakebed washouts due to the highly dynamic nature of currents in the Mackinac Straits, Enbridge cannot meet its legal duty under the state easement to prudently operate this pipeline.
The law is clear. The State of Michigan and MDEQ have “a perpetual duty . . . to secure to its people the prevention of pollution, impairment or destruction of its natural resources, and rights of navigation, fishing, hunting, and use of its lands and waters for other public purposes.” Therefore, the MDEQ must undertake a formal comprehensive review of impacts and alternatives associated with Enbridge’s entire Line 5 pipeline in the Straits and waters and bottomlands of the Great Lakes.
This duty is separate and independent from the Line 5 risk and alternative studies commissioned by the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board.
In sum, no final permit should be authorized until Enbridge has demonstrated the following: (1) Line 5 in the Straits is not likely to impair the protected public trust waters and uses in the Straits and beyond; (2) there exists no feasible and prudent alternative to Enbridge for Line 5 in the Straits within Enbridge’s overall capacity throughout its “Lakehead” or Great Lakes pipeline system; (3) it has provided additional information on the pipeline metal fatigue and heightened risk of failure; and (4) it is not violating the 1953 Easement with the State of Michigan.
This recently uncovered video from 2012 showing the condition of the Line 5 pipelines reveals long unsupported spans and other damage to the pipes. No amount of anchors will fix the shifting bottomlands of the Great Lakes, or repair the metal fatigue introduced by the decades-long unsupported spans. After you've seen the video, please SIGN THE PETITION.
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I am a concerned mother reaching out about this portion of your draft documents concerning Line 67. Specifically the “Certificate of need can not be issued” language on pages 1-6 section 1.4.1.2 ‘need for fossil fuels’ comprehensive policy level assessment for fossil fuels in our society and associated tribal rights is beyond the scope of an EIS for a single pipeline"
Why would you ignore such an important piece of how this process works? We the people not only deserve to be able to comment on our concerns here but, we deserve more than just the brush off your people are pushing on us thinking somehow we are too dumb to need an EIS. Our children mean more to us than your “progress” we are seeing the genocidal circumstances moving like this across our country. In North Dakota, we saw the illegal moves perpetrated on a nation of people for profit. We know there is a federal judge who has just shown the world they broke the law. That brings me to this line 67. We feel as citizens you are breaking the law by not allowing an EIS.
Your own rule defines areas of high consequence where the potential consequences of a gas pipeline accident may be significant or may do considerable harm to people and their property. The definition includes: current class 3 and 4 locations; facilities with persons who are mobility impaired, confined, or hard to evacuate and places where people gather for recreational and other purposes. For facilities with mobility-impaired, confined, or hard-to-evacuate persons and places where people gather, the corridor of protection from the pipeline is 300 feet, 660 feet or 1000 feet depending on the pipeline’s diameter and operating pressure. The offices of Pipeline Safety (OPS), Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), Department of Transportation (DOT) all failed to follow Laws based on licensing here. There is a mediation process in the licensing procedures for any contractor and we the people never got any mediation. Why is that? As a witness to the behaviors the oligarchs and their corporations have handed down to all people, we can say in all confidence you are trying to kill us. You don’t care that cancer is rampant; you don’t care that emission regulations were scrubbed all for a pipeline to make its profit. You don’t care that the president of the United States willfully agreed to let you all move forward placing himself as the head of this conspiracy, charges need to be brought against him for this and you all know it. The mere fact Det Norske Veritas (DNV-GL), your independent contractor was fired says so much. How they were involved with the State EIS process while holding contracts with Enbridge shows the blatant laws being broken in this organization as well. We know your company tried to bury the spills of Kalamazoo. We will never forget the lives lost there due to your mixing the words around in illegal documents all over the country. We feel Enbridge and its associates are very guilty of multiple crimes that have been shared and crimes that are yet to come based on their willful and bias extremes to get oil no matter who dies. We see Enbridge is in the business of writing contracts that violate the law with all their dealings worldwide and are asking you shut this pipeline down. We are not agreeing to this pipeline and we insist you dig up line 3 as well. We are encouraging people to stand up in the courts now and bring civil suits against the president, the government employees who took oil contributions, these corporations, banks and the ceo’s there in to get our justice. For it is what the dead deserve, the sick they deserve justice, my son who lives so far away from this issue yet feels threatened because he is losing his constitutional right to life, deserves justice. His generational rights are being stomped all over and we want change. We want you to switch your efforts to cleaning sites you have destroyed and move to renewable energies. It’s time for God’s sake.
Thank You,
Rebecca Maria Robles
San Diego, CA 92114