Posted Scoping Comments

Below is my response to the Notice of Intent by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, to prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Enbridge Line 5 Tunnel Project in the Straits of Mackinac:

While I don't live in northern Michigan I have relatives there and frequently vacation there. Nonetheless, a major development proposal anywhere in the United States by a company with such a terrible safety record would prompt me to comment.

Enbridge is the company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in United States history. Tellingly, their response to the initial news of this oil spill was to assume that it was NOT a spill but an equipment malfunction. So, for an additional SEVENTEEN hours oil continued to gush into the headwaters of the Kalamazoo River.

It only took one Exxon Valdez disaster to ruin the southern Alaska coast. The U.S.Corps of Engineers cannot take the chance that hundreds of miles of Great Lakes shoreline could be ruined for literally decades by such an ill managed company.

Perhaps more telling is the 2018 study commissioned by the State of Michigan on the risks and alternatives to using the Straits of Mackinac as a crossing for the Line 5 pipelines. The report was abruptly shelved and contractor fired when it was discovered that a key portion of the analysis was performed by someone simultaneously working on a separate report for Enbridge. This is NOT a company to trust!

Can the Corps really afford to dismiss Enbridge's safety record of 15 documented Line 5 failures, resulting in 260,000 gallons of oil leaking from Line 5. There were undoubtedly many more but records only go back to 1988. It was only blind luck that none of those leaks were into the Straits of Mackinac.

The leopard does NOT change its spots! Approving Line 5 across the Straits of Mackinac is courting disaster.

The Great Lakes Tunnel Project would protect the energy needs Line 5 pipeline provides while protecting our environment and creating jobs.
Line 5 delivers over 540,000 barrels of light crude oil, light synthetic crude and natural gas liquids every day. It has been operating safely for more than six decades and the state of the art proposed Great Lakes Tunnel deep below the lakebed will make it even safer.

The Straits of Mackinaw hold together 20% of the worlds fresh water in the Great Lakes Bioregion. One of the most beautiful, and ecologically sensitive places in the world. The purposed tunnel is not a solution to the current threat of the Line 5 pipeline, but rather, an unthinkable and inevitable disaster. The destruction of the state of Michigan's agriculture, fresh water drinking, commerce, tourism, fishing and recreation are all at very present danger with the current line 5 and tunnel proposal. The flawed plans of Enbridge has been a nightmare from the beginning. Broken testing equipment, questionable land acquisition, threatening of local protectors and a terrible track record (see Line 3 concerns and human rights violations) leaving little confidence of a successful project. The 23 million daily gallons of dirty fossil fuels is not needed for the state of Michigan. We have found many alternatives for the used propane including cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly options. Enbridge threatens future generations with their immense greed for profit. The lack of details surrounding tunnel safety makes me believe they would essentially be constructing a pipe bomb in the most precious place on Earth. This is scary. The decommission plan included filling the tunnel with water in 100 years .. why would we burden future generations with this nightmare? Who does this serve? Why risk the worlds most valuable resource? The health of fresh water comes first as we work to build a more equitable, regenerative and healthy society. Please consider the environmental impacts of these proposed transported fuels, the decommissioning and removal of tunnel, the construction disruptions to local animals, water, and humans.

Enbridge cannot be trusted to complete this project. Alternatives exist including their own pipeline line 6b, whose capacity happened to be double after it ruptured in 2010 causing the 2nd largest inland oil spill in US history.

For the love of water and future generations, please reject this folly of a 'solution'. Lives quite literally are dependent on it.

I am a resident of Michigan. Please do not build this pipe line. The company wanting to build it has already polluted our rivers. If we lose our Great Lakes we are doomed. DO NOT build it.
Pamela

I am a City Colleges of Chicago professor who became a climate change activist in the past several years. I was arrested in Hubbard County in June 2021 with numerous other responsible citizens who gathered in upper Minnesota from across the country to help resist Line 3. I stand with the indigenous leaders and the multitude of their allies in the U.S. and around the world who oppose the building of fossil fuel infrastructure such as Line 5. Please exercise responsible power elected and appointed to the Army Corps of Engineers to enforce an independent EIS and fully heed the inevitable results by denying further contracts for Line 5 and other such extremely destructive allowances. Thank you.

Line 5 is way past its safe usage. Please protect the lands and waters and air of our people and cease use of Line 5!

Sincerely,

Katherine Jain,
Leadership Team

For multiple reasons, both my wife & I are very much opposed to the proposed "beneath-the-straits" Line 5 Tunnel.
Principally, we recognize the undeniable fact that--since very little of the petroleum products which are piped thru an aging pipeline (by a corporate entity owning a bad environmental record) here in Michigan actually go to American consumers--it is time for our government to close this chapter of fossil-fuel dependency. Secondly, and mostly due to the age of the pipeline, this is an oil-spill environmental disaster waiting to happen. And, if it happens during an icy Winter, mitigation efforts will likely be long, costly, and incapable of stopping devasting pollution outcomes. Thirdly, it is past time for our own country (and state) to more seriously address the real-world realities of Climate Change by switching focus to fossil-fuel alternatives. This isn't likely to happen anytime soon, but especially not if we're still supporting corporate interests (which have few incentives to change their ways).
Thanks for considering our views. --Frank & Dottie Hawthorne, 1032 Howard St., Petoskey, MI

Hello, I am a citizen who has taken an interest in Enbridge's proposal to build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac and has concerns regarding the project. My concerns are as someone who visits the Straits of Mackinac area frequently as a tourist and as a citizen of Marshall, MI, where Enbridge was responsible for a significant oil spill on the Kalamazoo River in July 2010.

While I support the general idea of modifying Line 5's route in the Straits, I believe there is significant risk associated with such a project. Specifically, the potential for a oil spill in the Straits before the reroute is complete is a concern of mine. Due to my experience as a citizen affected by the 2010 spill, my confidence in Enbridge to detect and manage potential spills is low. According to the NTSB, the spill in Marshall was caused in by "The inadequacy of Enbridge’s integrity management program to accurately assess and remediate crack defects" and exacerbated by "the failure of Enbridge’s control center staff to recognize abnormal conditions related to ruptures", resulting in the spill not being detected for 17 hours. Add in the fact that Line 5 is older than the line that burst in Marshall, I'm concerned about the occurrence and impact of a potential spill in the Straits.

In conjunction with my concerns about Enbridge's ability to detect and manage potential spills, my other concern is the effects of a spill in the Straits of Mackinac. Having seen firsthand the effects of an oil spill I fear that an oil spill in the Straits would have a devastating effect on the surrounding area. In Marshall homes had to be permanently evacuated, a 35 mile stretch of river was closed to recreation for about 2 years, and parts of the river had the landscape permanently altered. Multiplying those effects by several magnitudes could be the result of a spill in the Straits, where tourism is a major part of the local economy. There is the potential for the region never recover if a spill were to drive away tourists for a multiple year time period.

Due to my concerns about this project, I believe shutting down Line 5 until the reroute is complete is the best solution. While I understand the potential impacts on fuel prices it would cause, they would be far outweighed by a spill in the Straits. In my personal experience Enbridge has not shown the ability to prevent and respond to spills in a competent manner, therefore needing oversight.

I find the use of this will be detrimental to the environment as the possible event of catastrophic failure has the possibility to contaminate water across several states via the Great Lakes, Niagara, and the Mississippi River. The sheer possibility of such a calamity is alarming as the track record of the contracted company is proof that this scenario is more likely to be a “when” not “if” example. As a result of such possibilities impacting such a large area in the aftermath of such an event, I do not believe that this project should move forward at this time.

We all know that we rely on pipelines for transportation of petroleum in one form or another. Be it oil to a refinery or natural gas to your homes. To take a stand on something that has operated safely for it's entire existence is comical. I am referring just to the water crossing. Accidents happen. Cars have accidents, we don't stop operating them. Airplanes go down, yet we still fly. Enbridge is going to foot the bill for a tunnel which give 3 fold protection. Pipeline out of water, pipeline in concrete tunnel and tunnel buried in the ground. You can't ask for more. The forces opposing this future project are just looking for a bigger cut in the profits....blame and simple!