PUBLIC COMMENT CLOSED
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Enbridge's 72-year-old Line 5 pipeline has spilled 1.1 million gallons along its length. In 2010, another Enbridge pipeline ruptured in the Kalamazoo River, spilling over 1 million gallons of oil in one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history. Its construction projects have punctured aquifers and violated treaties.
Despite this track record, Enbridge now wants to build a massive tunnel through the Straits of Mackinac to extend the life of its 72-year-old Line 5 crude oil pipeline.
Red Flags on Tunnel Project
Scientific experts are raising serious concerns about Enbridge's tunnel proposal, including challenging geologic conditions, poor-quality bedrock, fault zones, unconsolidated sediments, and high groundwater pressures. The company took boring samples every 950 feet, which is significantly less than the industry standard of every 50 to 200 feet, and plans to discharge up to 5 million gallons of wastewater per day into Lake Michigan during the construction phase.
EGLE Must Act
Now, here's the regulatory loophole Enbridge is trying to exploit: The company's proposed tunnel involves excavating millions of cubic yards of land from beneath the lakebed. This work clearly falls under state regulatory authority. However, the company claims that these underwater lands don't qualify as "bottomlands" under the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act (GLSLA). That's just crazy.
Add Your Voice - Protect the Great Lakes
Send a strong message to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) that all the impacts of a massive oil tunnel project must be thoroughly examined. Michigan needs a comprehensive review of the entire 4.3-mile tunnel project and its full range of environmental and safety impacts.
TAKE ACTION
Submit your comment to EGLE today. You can use our prepared comment below as-is, or customize it with your own words to make it more personal and impactful.
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Download Enbridge Permit Application
Download Enbridge Draft PN Plans Document
The proposed comment (easier to read here):
Enbridge's brazen attempt to shrink Michigan’s regulatory oversight of its proposed Line 5 tunnel is unacceptable and violates state law. The company’s plan to excavate millions of cubic yards of material from beneath the pristine Great Lakes lakebed–one of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems–while simultaneously claiming this massive industrial operation somehow escapes Michigan's jurisdiction under the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act (GLSLA) is not merely legally incorrect but constitutes an unconscionable assault on state sovereignty and environmental protection.
This interpretation is an absurd distortion of the law that violates both common sense and established legal precedent. Lands beneath our Great Lakes are unequivocally bottomlands under state jurisdiction, and that's just what the statute says. Full stop. When a project demands excavating millions of cubic yards from those bottomlands, the Great Lakes are threatened by sinkholes, explosions, and the blowout of pollution. Enbridge cannot manipulate regulatory frameworks to serve its corporate interests while abandoning Michigan communities and fragile ecosystems to absorb catastrophic environmental and economic risks. EGLE must deny Enbridge’s permit application because it ignores these threats to the Great Lakes. And EGLE must then assert its full regulatory authority and require a comprehensive environmental review of the entire 4.3-mile tunnel project–no exceptions, no corporate loopholes. This includes analyzing:
• All excavation impacts on lakebed ecosystems
• Long-term structural integrity risks in the Straits of Mackinac and short-term impacts while tunneling under an operating pipeline
• Potential contamination from construction activities
• Emergency response capabilities for a deep underwater pipeline
• Cumulative impacts on Great Lakes water quality
Michigan's Great Lakes are irreplaceable public resources that demand the highest level of protection. EGLE must not allow Enbridge to dodge state oversight through legal maneuvering.
Reject this permit application from Enbridge. Require a full Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act review that a project of this magnitude demands. A comprehensive review will show that impacts from this proposed tunnel will require Michigan to deny a permit for a massive project that Michigan doesn’t need and doesn’t want.