Supplemental Draft EIS Comments

There is impact vs likelihood consideration in any engineering project. For the case of line 5 tunnel, while likelihood could be argued as small, the impact of a failure would be devastating. The Great Lakes is home to a very large fresh water supply; a failure in the tunnel pipeline would be catastrophic. As in any engineering project, cost and schedule tend to dominate over reliability and safety, even when the project began with a focus on safety. I am submitting my objection to the building of line 5 tunnel. Thank you for your attention.

I am vehemently against any additional land and nearly 200 waterways being destroyed for the profit of the foreign entity - Enbridge, and Canada. Your concern should be the health of the Great Lakes (95% of the nation's fresh water supply) and the very real ongoing imminent threat Line 5 presently possesses. This public hearing is a charade! You as well as the DNR, and multiple state and federal court judges heard testimony from numerous experts including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. They’ve stated that not only should this expansion NOT be approved, but that it must be decommissioned ASAP as Line 5 aged out long ago and is actively rotting beneath the Great Lakes!
You’ve also been versed on the long-standing abysmal regard for the eco-systems both Enbridge and their contractor Michels Corp have with numerous lawsuits depicting repeated permit violations and illegal trespassing. Why then are you holding yet another public hearing when the experts have spoken? I’ve concluded USACE and WI DNR’s flawed reasoning for approving the expansion is one of two scenarios, fear or profit - a common incentive Enbridge is known for.
Some of my many reasons against the Line 5 expansion beyond the fact that we do NOT NEED this oil as we are the largest producer of oil in the world. The following reasons will reflect directly on USACE as the host of this hearing today:

1.) USACE has a documented history of involvement in projects that have led to significant environmental damage and controversy, even while simultaneously managing extensive environmental programs today. Including but not
limited: Everglades Restoration: Responsible for levee and drainage projects decades ago that severely degraded the Everglades ecosystem, reducing its size by half. The Corps is now involved in an $8 billion-plus, multi-decade effort to restore the damage its previous work caused, an example of taxpayers paying doubly for the agency's actions.
Hurricane Katrina Levee Failures: The failure of the New Orleans levee system during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was attributed to design flaws in the USACE-built system. The American Society of Civil Engineers called it "the worst engineering catastrophe in US History," leading to significant loss of life and property damage. A U.S. District Court later held the Corps responsible for flooding from specific levee breaches due to failure to properly maintain navigation channels, though the agency is protected from financial liability in the Flood Control Act of 1928.
Kissimmee River Straightening: In the 1960s, the Corps straightened Florida's meandering Kissimmee River. This project was later determined to be environmentally misguided, and the USACE is now working to restore the river to its original course, another instance of reversing its own prior work.
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO): This navigation channel in Louisiana was criticized for causing profound environmental damage and was cited as a contributing factor to levee failures during Hurricane Katrina.
Savannah Harbor Dredging: Environmental groups and South Carolina regulators sued the Corps over plans to dump potentially toxic dredge spoils, leading to significant delays and increased costs to implement additional pollution
controls.
Ongoing Pipeline Controversies: In recent years, the USACE has faced lawsuits and criticism from environmental and tribal groups over permits issued for oil and gas pipelines (like the Line 5 reroute and the Line 3 pipeline construction) that cross sensitive wetlands and waterways, with concerns about potential spills and damage to critical
ecosystems. In 2023, a federal judge ruled that the company was trespassing on tribal land where their wild rice beds face imminent disaster.
The Center for Biological Diversity sent a notice of its intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for illegally expediting every pending permit to fill or destroy wetlands across the United States. The permits have been fast-tracked under the guise of President Trump’s executive order declaring a national energy emergency.
USACE shamefully reclassified 700 pending wetland permits for projects from Alaska to Florida, which will now be reviewed under their emergency procedures. This action violates the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Trump’s national energy emergency is illegal, and your mindless plan to implement it will do enormous environmental damage and harm some of this country’s most cherished wildlife.
The Clean Water Act does not authorize the EPA or the USAC to limit or curtail their environmental review based on a declaration of any type of emergency. As I’m certain you are aware, the EPA only allows emergency reviews of agency projects following a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, under the Stafford Act.
Neither the Clean Water Act nor Endangered Species Act allows a president to circumvent any aspect of either law based on a purported emergency.
It is extremely disturbing that while taxpayers fund the WI DNR + USACE , you refuse to do the job you’re tasked with - namely protecting our fragile ecosystems for future generations including your own! Your allegiance has devolved to corporate dominance including foreign corporations, today it’s gifted to Canadian Enbridge.
Surely you’re aware that this oil comes FROM Alberta Canada - takes a shortcut through the U.S., returns TO Sarnia Canada, FOR Canadians and Canada’s economy. We get all the risk, to our pristine lands and hundreds of waterways for a very nominal amount of the product - contrary to the propaganda spewed by Enbridge and their paid stooges in matching green
shirts.
Our government, from top to bottom, and with our tax dollars have failed We the People and the planet! Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and the 134 legislators have remained cowardly silent when pressed for 3+ years to weigh in on the Line 5 permits they opted for refusing to inform the people of this impending disaster. Again, fear or profit.
All we can do now is pray that Karma befall you and your namesake be marked by shame. Water Is Life is not simply a hashtag, it’s a non-renewable God given gift we are to be stewards of - according to the Bible.

Line 5 running underwater across the Straits of Mackinac is a disaster waiting to happen. Within 20 days of a spill in the Straits, oil would spread as far west as Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, a distance of roughly 35 miles, and as far southeast as Rogers City in Lake Huron, a distance of about 50 miles, according to the computer-simulation study conducted by hydrodynamics expert David Schwab of the U-M Water Center.


http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22284-straits-of-mackinac-worst-possible-place-for-a-great-lakes-oil-spill-u-m-researcher-concludes

Please see the attached PDF file containing comments of Environmental Law & Policy Center and Michigan Climate Action Network to the USACE on its Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Enbridge's Proposed Line 5 Tunnel Project.

I oppose the enbridge proposed line 5 pipeline under the great lakes. It would most certainly fail, to the detriment of the entire great lakes ecosystem. Why should my Michigan tax dollars go towards this, if all the money goes to a private corporation?

Vous trouverez ci-joint une lettre signée par madame Christine Fréchette, ministre de l'Économie, de l'Innovation et de l'Énergie, au nom du gouvernement du Québec concernant la canalisation 5 d'Enbridge.

I am deeply concerned about the proposed HDD project that would tunnel through the Straits of Mackinaw. I urge you to reject this rushed proposal. The tunnel isn’t a fix; it’s a decade-long construction project followed by a new pipeline. As stewards of the Great Lakes, we should be acting responsibly by dismantling of the fossil fuel infrastructure that is destroying species and the planet has to commence. Michigan has an opportunity to lead the world in undoing an unsustainable system and building a new, better one.

Please see attached comments.

Growing up in Michigan I spent all of my summers at a Great Lake and many times that was at the Straits of Mackinaw. Those waters are pristine and sacred. To put them at risk by drilling for a pipeline is reckless and irresponsible. The people of Michigan need the Great Lakes. It’s what drives our economy and our lives. If we don’t have the lakes what are we left with? Not only must we reject drilling underneath the Straits for a pipeline, we need to reject the pipeline all together. Michiganders cannot afford for these lakes to be contaminated by a foreign irresponsible oil company that has already spilled millions of gallons of oil on American soil. The world cannot risk it either. The Great Lakes form the largest body of fresh water in the world. This pipeline puts a majority of these lakes at risk. Shut down Line 5 now!