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

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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

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Showing 2185 reactions

  • Jen Molebash
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-18 07:49:25 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • Jennifer Molebash
    signed 2018-02-18 07:49:04 -0500
  • Everyl Yankee
    signed 2018-02-18 07:48:19 -0500
  • Shirley Burga
    signed 2018-02-18 07:48:15 -0500
  • Norma Bailey
    signed 2018-02-18 07:48:07 -0500
  • Robert Vandervennet
    signed 2018-02-18 07:47:37 -0500
  • Richard and Brenda Averill
    signed 2018-02-18 07:46:52 -0500
  • Karen Schwarz Graham Long
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-18 07:45:58 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • Douglas Hill
    signed 2018-02-18 07:45:53 -0500
  • Karen Graham
    signed 2018-02-18 07:45:29 -0500
  • Grace Pernecky
    signed 2018-02-18 07:45:00 -0500
  • Anthony Roth
    signed 2018-02-18 07:44:28 -0500
  • Judith Lindsey
    signed 2018-02-18 07:44:13 -0500
  • Tara Verbridge
    signed 2018-02-18 07:44:05 -0500
  • Ken Ellison
    signed 2018-02-18 07:44:04 -0500
    Shut down this pipeline now before we have another disaster
  • Judith Reich
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-18 07:43:55 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • William Sellers
    signed 2018-02-18 07:43:44 -0500
  • Gary Lea
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-18 07:43:28 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • Gary Lea
    @brotherlea tweeted link to this page. 2018-02-18 07:43:25 -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=56873
  • Judith Reich
    signed 2018-02-18 07:43:21 -0500
  • Deborah Stapleton
    signed 2018-02-18 07:43:18 -0500
  • Gail Buckman
    signed 2018-02-18 07:43:15 -0500
  • Bonnie Nussbaum
    signed 2018-02-18 07:43:08 -0500
    It’s beyond the time for this travesty to end. Every step counts!
  • Rolf von Walthausen
    signed 2018-02-18 07:42:53 -0500
  • Dan Kett
    signed 2018-02-18 07:42:52 -0500
  • Marjorie Moore
    signed 2018-02-18 07:42:27 -0500
  • Fredrick Robinson
    signed 2018-02-18 07:42:27 -0500
  • Marilyn Ashbaugh
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-18 07:42:24 -0500
    Join me and SIGN THIS PETITION. The DEQ must demand a review of the Line 5 pipeline before approving more anchors.
  • Susan Maylone
    signed 2018-02-18 07:42:10 -0500
  • Gary Lea
    signed 2018-02-18 07:41:51 -0500
    The law must be followed, for if the state allows legal bypass, the state would be responsible for failure and expensive repair and cleanup.

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