Posted Draft EIS Comments

Please do not allow this to happen. The great lakes are the freshwater jewel of the world. We need to be less dependent on oil and more dependent on solar and wind which regenerate freely.

It doesn’t take a scientist to know the proposed Line 5 tunnel will have huge impacts as the building of the tunnel for six years with itself destroy the water and all living organisms. The actual pipeline is a danger to Lakes Michigan and Huron. If the current line spills oil, the damage will be so great that in my lifetime the water and shoreline in those lakes and the islands in them will be destroyed.

To be clear, the “emergency” Donald Trump has declared is nothing more than a self serving and self contrived mechanism to enrich himself and his cronies at the expense ofd the American tax payer. Regardless of the non-impending and non-existent energy emergency, we can have all the energy we want but if we don’t have clean water to drink and harvest food from we don’t need any energy. The Great Lakes are the backbone of Michigans tourism economy. NO ONE will come to a gas and oil polluted glacial basin. While there will be deleterious environmental affects to the bottom lands of the “straits of Mackinac” as well as the terminal ends of the proposed tunnel, the real issue here is that we are playing with fire. It is not an issue of “IF” but “when” we will suffer a catastrophe that will undoubtedly scar our region and its people forever. The USA has produced and refined more petroleum in the last 2 years than ever in its history. We do not need this pipeline for our survival, we do NEED FRESH WATER, food, and clean air. It is time to push aside corporate greed and realize the need to protect what brought us all here (To the Great Lakes Basin) in the first place.

This study did not take into account the possibility of the tunnel as a “stranded asset”. The financial viability or term of this project is not in the original scoping and is a significant deficit to the overall study. Canadians are now stepping up plans for an alternative to Line 5 called Energy East. The liklihood of this alternative increased with the new emphasis on Canadian sovereignty
This study does not prove the viability of this often-changed tunnel plan. If this boring happens and the machine is stranded what is the exit plan? Who determines the solution?
Lastly, the claims of indigenous tribes to treaty rights is ignored – once again. If this were a US Corporation, say, Exxon Mobil as an example, you would be honoring their contract rights. In this instance you are choosing the contract rights of a Canadian corporation, Enbridge, over the US Treaty rights of first people.
This is aflawed process and should be completed before it is approved.

I have never heard any comments about attaching the pipeline to the underside of the Mackinaw Bridge. It would then be below traffic and above shipping. The pipeline would be easily accessible for inspection and maintenance/repairs and away from the water and possible damage caused by ships. The bridge is already there. The cost of building it under the bridge surely would be a lower and faster than a tunnel.

I am very concerned about the proposed 3.6 mile tunnel under the straits of Mackinaw to house a new segment of line 5. The drilling will potentially release contaminated substances, lower lake levels &
effect lake levels & animal habitats.

This is a dangerous proposal for our number 1 source of fresh water to our environment.

Please review this proposal & act for the safety of wildlife, our precious lakes & economy!

It is crazy to put an oil pipeline through the fresh water of the Great Lakes.

The great lakes account for 21% of the worlds surface fresh water source that provides drinking water to approximately 28 million Americans and Canadians. Lake Michigan, Huron, and Superior account for 77,111 square miles of fresh water that brings in approximately $52.23 billion dollars annually from tourism and fishing alone. To safe guard Michigan and the Great Lakes economy and health the dual pipeline & line 5 should be safely decommissioned. It is 22 years past it’s life expectancy. Line 5 has leaked 33 times over that last 72 years. The lower portion also crosses over 400 water bodies that mostly empty into the Great Lakes.
I am very concerned about the intake structure that would be using the lake water for construction and the two outfalls that would discharge “treated construction process water into the Straits” that would be happening for 3-4 years to build the tunnel.
Decommissioning line 5 would create more jobs than building a tunnel. There are also cases and judgements for the removal of line 5. There is no point in approving a tunnel if parts of the line has been ordered to be removed.
Wisconsin Bad River Band trespass action, currently in 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, found Enbridge has been trespassing since 2013 easements expired and was ordered to remove by June 2026. Judge james Jamo Ingham County considering a challenge to 1953 easement permitting line 5 in the MI owned bottomlands. Parties had failed to consider public trust doctrine which requires finding state lands will not be impaired for use by future generations of MI’s seeking order finding the easement null & void from it’s inception.
Track record of the Kalamazoo River oil spill of 7/25/2010 from Enbridge’s Line 6B pipeline ruptured releasing more than 840,000 gallons of crude oil, taking 17 hours to realize this was occurring. Or the June 2020 line 5 was shut down temporarily and Enbridge did not notify the state officials about the damage.
There should NOT be any toxic potential near water, especially the 2nd largest lake in the world!

I do NOT SUPPORT the Line 5 Tunnel Project proposed by Enbridge. Environmental issues are too delicate in the Great Lakes to risk an oil leak into such large and pristine waters. Enbridge has had oil leakages at other locations in their pipelines which were in land-buried sites. Such sites are easier to contain and clean up. Even then, they were slow to admit to such situations, or alleviate the problems, or to clean-up quickly. However, any failure in this Line 5 Tunnel Project under the Mackinac Straits would be difficult, if not impossible, to service or clean up and would spread oil across the most beautiful area of our state. It would threaten the fishing and tourist industries and would soil beautiful beaches for years to come. Enbridge should be able to find an overland pathway for their pipeline that can avoid this delicate and beautiful area. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider this project and find another pathway.

On table 4.8-1 on page 4-93, the section on karst conditions indicates there will be “thorough site investigations to investigate geological conditions prior to construction.” It seems like now is the perfect opportunity to conduct such evaluations that assess the environmental impact of such a project. The way I’m reading the EIS, it seems like it says the karst features don’t exist now, although they could if the project starts and we can also find out beforehand, but we didn’t. That doesn’t inspire confidence.