Surfers for the Great Lakes Tee

SOME NOT-SO-FUN-FACTS FOR YOU:

(Provided from our friends at Oil & Water Don’t Mix)

Nearly 23 million gallons of oil flow daily through two 73-year-old pipelines in the heart of the Great Lakes, just 1.5 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge. Constructed in 1953 during the Eisenhower administration, the two 20-inch-in-diameter “Line 5” crude oil pipelines owned by Canadian company Enbridge, Inc. lie exposed at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, a busy shipping channel.

Enbridge’s pipelines, which run about 1,000 feet apart at depths ranging from 100 to 270 feet, have been on the bottom of the Straits for over seven decades. Enbridge installed several support structures under the pipelines in 2006, 2010, and 2018 following the company’s oil spill into the Kalamazoo River – the nation’s second-largest land-based oil spill. Now, hundreds of supports elevate 3 miles of the pipeline off the lakebed into the turbulent current. This design was never approved and makes the pipeline unsafe.

Enbridge officials have claimed that properly maintained pipelines can last indefinitely, but the company’s history of major spills in Michigan and North America proves otherwise. Today, 90 to 95% of the oil flowing through the Line 5 pipelines comes from Canada and takes a shortcut through Michigan and the Straits of Mackinac before crossing back into Canada near Port Huron.

Line 5 has spilled 33 times and at least 1.1 million gallons along its length since 1968.

The pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac cross one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the world. The Great Lakes are home to 21 percent of the world’s fresh surface water. The pristine Straits area supports bountiful fisheries, provides drinking water to thousands of people, and anchors a thriving tourism industry with historic and beautiful Mackinac Island right in the center. This area is the definition of Pure Michigan.

Several troubling factors have come together that cause grave concern:

• An anchor strike in 2018 from a ship in peril gashed and dented both underwater pipelines.
• Enbridge contractors severely damaged pipeline supports in 2019, but Enbridge safety measures missed the damage, which wasn’t even discovered until June 2020. The pipeline was temporarily shut down to inspect the damage (subsequently reopened).
• Enbridge, Inc., the Canadian company that operates the pipeline, has a tarnished safety record. Its spills include the second-largest inland oil spill when Line 6B spilled 1.1 million gallons of tar sands bitumen into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.
• The contract between the pipeline company and the State of Michigan (the Easement) has ongoing compliance issues. Gov. Whitmer revoked the easement in 2021 because of eight known violations that make the pipeline dangerous.
• The age, location, and questionable condition of the pipeline.
• An increase in the volume and pressure of fluids moving through the pipelines
• There is a lack of transparency about safety inspections and what petroleum products are being transported through Line 5 in the Great Lakes.
• The lack of proactive regulatory environments in Michigan and at the federal level.
• University of Michigan scientists modeled the currents in the Straits of Mackinac and called it “the worst possible place for an oil spill in the Great Lakes.”
• Line 5 is a shortcut for Canada’s benefit, with less than 5 to 10% of the product used in Michigan.
• Scientists warn that we have less than ten years to reduce carbon emissions by half or face dire consequences from a dangerously overheating climate. Moving away from dirty fuels like the ones carried by Line 5 is even more urgent.

Now it’s even more urgent. The proposed Enbridge oil tunnel would take years to build while the Great Lakes remain at risk.