TAKE ACTION

Tell the DEQ they need to follow the law. Sign this petition now.

OWDMTake Action Now

The entire engineering of how the Line 5 pipeline is anchored to the Great Lakes bottomlands has changed - WITH NO STATE REVIEW or approval.

Enbridge is asking the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to approve the company’s application to add 22 new screw anchors to prop up Line 5. Enbridge is trying to get around a full legally-required review of the rest of the underwater portion of the pipeline and is ignoring the effect that these anchor supports will have on the integrity of the pipeline moving forward.

The original pipeline design did not specify the use of screw anchors. In fact, this type of anchor is responsible for a majority of the coating damage that Enbridge has known about since at least 2014, but the public just found out about in October 2017.

Anchors are not a repair - they're new infrastructure

According to state law, new materials used to support the pipeline should trigger a full integrity review of the entire underwater segment of Line 5. The DEQ has failed to follow the law, and in doing so, they have failed to hold Enbridge responsible - even with the Great Lakes ecosystem and 720 miles of shoreline at risk.

Sign the Petition

Director Grether, Division and Unit Chief Fish, and the Gaylord Office Unit Supervisor Haas, and Great Lakes Submerged Land Specialist Graft:

We urge you to deny Enbridge’s pending Line 5 anchor permit application to install 22 new screw anchors onto the bottomlands of Lake Michigan, and instead, require Enbridge to file a new conveyance application for the entire underwater Line 5 pipelines to occupy our public trust waters and bottomlands of the Great Lakes. This is what the law requires.

Enbridge’s Screw Anchors Constitute a New Design, Not a Repair. Since 2002, Enbridge has installed 128 permanent screw anchors along Line 5 fastened into the lakebed, contending that this new design is mere repair and maintenance. This new engineering design, however, has transformed the entire underwater pipeline infrastructure by elevating it off the lakebed floor.

The original 1953 engineering design placed Line 5 pipelines in a trench on the bottomlands with no maximum support longer than 75 feet to prevent metal fatigue and rupture. This engineering design was a key provision of the 1953 legal Easement between Enbridge and the State of Michigan. But Enbridge routinely violated the 75-foot maximum span requirement and did not properly design its dual pipelines to withstand the swift currents in the Straits of Mackinac.

For nearly the first 50 years of Line 5 occupying the public trust waters of Lake Michigan, Enbridge used sandbags to provide support. Enbridge’s “solution” – to elevate the pipeline off the lakebed floor with screw anchors – is not a mere repair, but rather a completely new design that was never authorized and has never been evaluated under the 1955 public trust law of the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act (“GLSLA”).

New Evidence Reveals that Enbridge Knew Screw Anchors Were Damaging Line 5 Pipeline Coating Since 2014. In October 2017 – four months after Enbridge submitted the original DEQ permit — the public learned that Enbridge had acted in bad faith and had known about damage to Line 5’s protective coating in the Straits of Mackinac as early as 2014 but did not disclose this critical information to state or federal officials until late in the summer of 2017. This material information could have altered previous state and federal authorizations in 2016 and 2017 that allowed additional screw anchors to be installed into the lakebed.

Material Change Triggers Full Review of Entire Underwater Pipeline Infrastructure. Given Line 5’s new design with permanent structures and material changes, the DEQ must direct Enbridge to go back to the drawing board and submit a new conveyance application under the law. Nothing less than this will protect the Great Lakes from a catastrophic oil spill.

2,233 SIGNATURES
Help Reach the Next Goal: 2,500 signatures

Will you sign?


Showing 2185 reactions

  • Mary Heintzkill
    signed via 2018-02-19 13:56:50 -0500
  • Matt Heintzkill
    signed 2018-02-19 13:55:01 -0500
  • Jeffrey Martin
    signed via 2018-02-19 13:53:24 -0500
  • Bob Ferguson
    signed 2018-02-19 13:49:31 -0500
  • Annie Greenfield
    signed 2018-02-19 13:46:37 -0500
  • Linda Prostko
    signed 2018-02-19 13:42:45 -0500
  • Robert Sangalli
    signed 2018-02-19 13:38:37 -0500
    WOW, the good people of Flint still don’t have clean water. No top leaders went to jail and now those same politicians want to PUT THE GREAT LAKES AT RISK. Stop the insanity !! Shut this pipeline down !!!
  • Carolyn Swift
    signed 2018-02-19 13:38:30 -0500
  • Judith Hartman
    signed 2018-02-19 13:32:18 -0500
  • Monique Musialowski
    signed 2018-02-19 13:32:14 -0500
  • Marisa Gies
    @mapooka tweeted link to this page. 2018-02-19 13:31:13 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors. http://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/review_the_line_5_pipeline?recruiter_id=57046
  • Marisa Gies
    signed 2018-02-19 13:30:36 -0500
    I am outraged by Snyder’s and the State of MIchigan’s continued negligence on this issue! Our state’s way of life is at stake. Please, DEQ, do not approve this new infrastructure before a full review of the pipeline’s current state, and remember—these screw anchors are causing damage to this extremely dangerous and precarious piece of infrastructure. The state is obligated to protect our most precious waters under the public trust doctrine. Save us from disaster — shut down Line 5!
  • Stephanie Wagenborg
    signed 2018-02-19 13:26:53 -0500
  • Gretchen Kronk
    signed 2018-02-19 13:15:56 -0500
    We must do everything we can to protect and preserve the Great Lakes: Deny the Enbridge anchor permit application. Shut down Line 5.
  • Steven Kraft
    signed 2018-02-19 13:14:33 -0500
    Line 5 is an aging piece of industrial equipment that has out lived its functional, economic life. It needs to be removed, not patched. If it was above water in plain view, subjection to inspection by the citizens of Michigan the current debate about how to rejigger the supports would not be taking place. However, since the pipeline is out of view, Enbridge is essentially shifting the risk of a breakdown to all the citizens of Michigan as well as those of other states and provinces who live close to the shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron. It is time for a full review of what is a very old piece of industrial equipment that has outlived its functional, economic life and which endangers the economic vitality of Michigan’s citizenry.
  • Judith And Daniel Dickinson
    signed 2018-02-19 13:12:50 -0500
    Enbridge is trying very hard to not have to do the legally-required review of the entire underwater part of the pipeline. Can’t let them get away with this.
  • fred madwid
    signed 2018-02-19 13:10:21 -0500
  • Mary Lewis
    signed 2018-02-19 13:04:18 -0500
  • Maureen Hansz
    signed 2018-02-19 13:02:51 -0500
  • Dawn Wing
    signed 2018-02-19 12:58:55 -0500
  • Darlene Heikkinen
    signed 2018-02-19 12:47:28 -0500
  • Mary Lachowski
    signed via 2018-02-19 12:43:51 -0500
  • Zachary Richmond
    signed 2018-02-19 12:42:30 -0500
  • Jody Prestine
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-19 12:38:45 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • Jody Prestine
    signed 2018-02-19 12:38:25 -0500
  • Lara Post
    signed 2018-02-19 12:35:39 -0500
  • Peggy Greenwood
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-19 12:30:28 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • Peggy Greenwood
    signed 2018-02-19 12:30:16 -0500
    Protect our Great Lakes From Enbridge!
  • Bud DeGuc
    signed 2018-02-19 12:30:05 -0500
    I was born in Buffalo New York in 1950. At that time there were no regulations to control contaminating effluents from industries located on the Great Lakes. I can remember spending summer days at Lake Erie. What was sad was walking to the water across the sand, but the sand would be covered with dried up dead fish. It was later discovered that the lake was being poisoned by the waste being dumped into the lake by local steel plants and similar industries. We now have a much better understanding of impacts man made pollutants have on our environment. With that knowledge how can we justify the high risk gamble of allowing this antiquated pipeline to continue delivering pollutants that will create horrendous consequences when this line fails.

    How expensive will this cleanup be, how long will it take to return this pristine area back to what it was. And last but not least, who will pay for this cleanup and reimburse all the people who make a sustainable living from this beautiful pristine lake.

    THE ONLY REALISTIC ANSWER IS TO PHYSICALLY ABANDON THIS PIPELINE AND DENY ANY PERMIT TO UTILIZE ANY OTHER MEANS OF DELIVERING THE PRODUCT POLLUTANTS CURRENTLY TRANSPORTED BY IT.
  • Sondra Wilson
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-19 12:25:54 -0500
    SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.

You can help now.


Join those working to protect the Great Lakes & climate from the Enbridge Line 5 crude oil pipeline.

Get updates