Posted Draft EIS Comments

Sections of the pipeline known as Line 5, including the entirety of the dual pipelines at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, are past their operating lifetime. They need to be safely removed. We ought NOT ALLOW Enbridge, the multi-national corporation which had been operating Line 5, to further damage that which is in the public trust by tunneling into such a sensitive location. Option 2C is the correct option and ought to be further examined. What are the detailed plans for the safe cleaning and delicate removal of the existing pipeline? Where will the byproducts of cleaning and wastewater be disposed? How will the release of oil and chemicals into the straits be prevented?
Please protect the life including wetlands and vegetation on the land and the ground and surface water. Please DO NOT allow Enbridge to create this tunnel and ensure clean up the mess from the existing pipeline.

I’m requesting an extension . 30 days is not enough time for the public to review and respond to 1,000 pages of technical data. Please provide the public with an extension.

I’m a Citizen of the Sault Tribe, but Mackinac band Ojibwe. Enbridge is trespassing on our ancestral land which is the bottom lands of the Straits of Mackinac. This is cultural Genocide, Racial Genocide & Environmental Genocide. No Line 5 Tunnel & Decommission Line 5. Let’s invest in clean renewable energy for the next 7 generations.

This comment process is grossly insufficient for a 1000+ page EIS and only one month deadline. You received over 77,000 public comments during scoping, with more than 90% of Michigan testimony opposing this project when given adequate time to comment. Why are you ignoring this overwhelming public opposition? This tunnel project would turn the Straits of Mackinac into an experimental industrial zone for six-plus years of construction, violate Indigenous treaty rights, and threaten the Great Lakes that provide drinking water for 40 million people, all so a Canadian corporation can transport oil that isn’t even needed in Michigan.

This experimental tunnel poses serious explosion risks from submerged methane, would destroy wetlands and endangered bat habitat, and uses an untested design that independent experts warn is dangerous. There is no justification for Michigan and the U.S. to bear these risks to benefit a Canadian oil company. Construction costs have already ballooned from $500 million to potentially $1.5 billion, while Enbridge’s own experts testified that removing Line 5 would only increase transportation fuel prices by 0.5 cents per gallon. Why should Michigan bear these costs for such minimal benefit?

Slashing the public comment period from 60 to 30 days renders it almost impossible for citizens to be able to read and understand the draft review, which is hundreds of pages long and very detailed. I need more time to read an understand the implications of the report.

By claiming an “energy emergency” which neither exists or would be relevant to this project, as the pipeline would not provide oil and gas to the United States, USACE rushed the environmental review process and has not completed the ethnographic study or fully honored their government to government responsibilities and obligations to Tribes. The shortened review period does not give the public the adequate time to consider and provide input on the draft EIS. Tribal Nations oppose this project and as sovereign nations whose sacred sites will most certainly be negatively affected by this project, they should be listened to. A project such as this, that could have such serious environmental impacts, and will have serious cultural impacts should be considered with the utmost caution, all alternatives should be considered to the highest degree, and Tribal sovereignty should be respected above all.

Enbridge has such a scary history of hugely damaging pipeline leaks, and of not being forthcoming about those leaks. Line 5 is 72 years old, and it alone has had at least 33 documented oil spills since 1968, spilling over 1.1 million gallons of oil! Across the entire Enbridge system, there have been hundreds of spills, doing enormous damage to the fragile environment. The Great Lakes hold a significant portion of the world’s fresh surface water and are essential for the environment and the communities that rely on them. They are too precious a resource to gamble with. Enbridge has already proven itself not up to the task of safely managing its pipelines. The only ethical option is to shut down Line 5 for once and for all!

My comments are in opposition to Line 5 and certainly compounded by its relationship with Enbridge, a company that has a track record of obfuscation, environmental contamination, and lies about its ability to create and maintain a safe pipeline transecting the depths of the Great Lakes. Its pipelines have been in place for more than 7 decades. Since 1968 Enbridge’s Line 5 has had 33 spills and places the Great Lakes at Great Risk. Its incompetence led to an oil spill in the Kalamazoo River: that one was a result of its Line 6B pipeline failure (inland oil being transferred) causing a greater than one million gallons of tar sand bitumen spilling and contaminating the Kalamazoo River.
The Great Lakes are more than a beautiful resource, but are ecologically sensitive bodies of fresh water (21 percent of surface fresh water of the world).
Critical to the economies of the Great Lakes States and its consortium:
• The fishing industry: of all affected States
• Potable water for thousands of inhabitants included in the Great Lakes Consortium (GLC).
• Tourism’s annual generation of millions of dollars to the GLC States.
Damage caused by Enbridge workers in 2019 went undiscovered until 2020. There have been temporary shutdowns, but then Enbridge has ignored restrictions placed by Michigan’s government and tried to continue ‘work as usual.’ Governor Whitmer revoked the easement/access in 2021 because of the number of violations and Enbridge being out of compliance AND Enbridge’s habit of lying and bullying behavior. Its arrogance in abusing the Governor is galling. This is a State, not Federal, issue.
Having Line 5 crossing the Straits of Mackinac (linking Lakes Michigan and Huron and separating the Upper and Lower Peninsulas) would ensure the contamination of this precious and valuable freshwater resource with Enbridge pipeline’s next failure (not a question of IF, but WHEN), would occur in the most critical location, damaging fresh water quality, the fish and all other elements that thrive in the Lakes and associated industries, as well as the breadth of its disastrous spread, being magnified and uncontrollable. It’s not enough to penalize the harm done by Enbridge (past, present, future), but lives will be harmed.
Keep the pipelines well away from bodies of water, increase regulations and oversight, and find an alternate route that doesn’t count on trusting Enbridge or any other company that WILL cause so much damage. Dr. Carla L. Carleton (Mason, MI)