SPRING BAY—Forget about waiting for a potential breach of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline easement in the Straits of Mackinac (through the Canadian oil transport company Enbridge agreement), the company has already been violating safety conditions, says a local resident.
“This is truly a horror story,” stated Mike Wilton, of Spring Bay, to news last week that Enbridge has violated multiple terms of the 1953 agreement with the state of Michigan that originally allowed the placement of oil pipelines on the lake bottom in the Straits of Mackinac, according to 22 environmental and tribal groups.
“Not only is there the potential for a leak in the line being a huge concern; now we find out they’ve (Enbridge) been outside the agreement in a lot of ways, for many years,” said Mr. Wilton.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press in its April 13 edition, 22 environmental and tribal groups allege Enbridge has violated multiple terms of the 1953 agreement with the State of Michigan that originally allowed the placement of oil pipelines on the lake bottom in the Straits of Mackinac.
The groups have called on Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Attorney General Bill Schuette and interim state Department of Environmental Quality Director Keith Creagh to immediately order a stop to the flow of oil through Line 5. These are Enbridge’s twin pipelines that daily carry nearly 23 million gallons of light crude oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane, through the Straits of Mackinac.
The groups pointed to recently released data on Enbridge’s website from a 2013 inspection of Line 5, showing corrosion in nine locations on the eastern segment of the underwater Straits pipelines, as well as two dents and 35 circumferential cracks at the locations where the pipeline segments are welded together. One seven inch long area of corrosion has resulted in a 26 percent loss of wall thickness, reports the Free Press.
That, the environmental groups argue, is in itself a violation of the 1953 easement pact between the state of Michigan and Enbridge’s predecessor, Lakehead Pipe Line Inc., that allowed the pipes on the lake bottom. Engineering documents through the Michigan Public Service Commission incorporated into the easement agreement calls for the pipes to be at least 0.812 inches thick.
Environmental attorney Liz Kirkwood, executive director of the Traverse-City based non-profit For Love of Water (FLOW), told the Detroit Free Press, “the law and this easement agreement are clear: state leaders cannot wait another year or more while Enbridge continues to violate safety conditions it agreed to and withholds safety inspections and other data from the public and the state.” In response to Free Press interview requests, Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy replied with an emailed statement that did not respond specifically to the environmental and tribal groups points of contention, instead he maintained that the pipelines are safe, reported the Free Press.
Several other concerns were raised in a letter from the environmental and tribal groups to the Michigan governor and Attorney General Schuette calling for Line 5 to be shut down.
“As time goes by inevitably the pipeline will be susceptible to a breach and then what do all of us who are affected do? There is no such thing as never going to happen, especially when something has been created by man,” continued Mr. Wilton. “It would be a disaster.”
