Endorse the Decommission Plan

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17 Hours, 65 Years

CALLING ENBRIDGE 1765*

PLEASE ANSWER


Robert Learner


Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Please Answer.

17 hours, a ruptured pipe,

One million gallons, into the night.

Talmadge Creek – Kalamazoo River,

Tar sand oil, running forever.

17 hours, a rusted break,

From Marshall, Ceresco, Battle Creek.

Heavy diluted bitumen crude,

Augusta, Galesburg, Morrow Lake too.

Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Where are you?

17 hours,

No Answer.


Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Please Answer.

65 years for Line No. 5,

Two twenty inch pipes with a 50 year life.

Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, great fresh water lakes,

Five miles across in the Mackinac Straits.

65 years, two old oil pipes,

23 million gallons running day and all night.

Niagara force currents, times that by ten,

Lake bed washed out, gone is the sand.

Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Please Answer.


Four anchor supports, broken free by the flow,

Two old oil pipes, supported no more.

Zebra / quagga mussels hold on,

New acid waste, new weight by the ton.

65 years, two stressed-out old pipes,

Nine rusty spots on the eastern Straits side.

Glass fiber coating, in places torn,

Metal fatigue, the most feared rupture born.

Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Where are you?

65 years,

No Answer.


Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Please Answer.

Five beautiful lakes, a great glacial gift,

Fresh water for millions, forever so blessed.

Pure Michigan treasure, foundation for life,

A wonderful resource, a shared human right.

High winds, high waves, strong currents and ice,

A dynamic ecosystem, supporting all life.

Two tired old pipes, 100 – 200 – 300 feet deep,

With the importance of water, they can never compete.


So flush out the pipes, turn off the pumps,

Shutdown Line 5, we need to be blunt.

20%, all surface fresh water on Earth,

Must remain safe, on this planet of our birth.

Calling Enbridge 1765, Calling Enbridge 1765,

Please Answer.
© Robert Learner, April, 2017

• The number, Enbridge 1765, is a combination of the 17 hour delay in shutting down the oil in Line 6b when it ruptured in 2010 and the current 65 year age of the Line 5 pipe in the Mackinac Straits. The number is designed to be raised yearly as the pipe ages or until it breaks or is shut down

that line is a ticking time bomb…replace or shut down

Growing up on Lake Huron I learned to appreciate the incredible resources of the Great Lakes. Gas pipelines are not one of them! We must protect the World’s largest fresh water reserve from contamination that irreversibly alters the usefulness of the water for human consumption, crops, etc. and for the ecosystems that they support!