MANITOULIN—A new report prepared by the University of Michigan Water Centre, indicates that if the Enbridge pipeline ever bursts between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, the effects of an oil spill would reach as far as Manitoulin Island.
“This is a disaster waiting to happen,” stated Spring Bay resident Mike Wilton, who is also a member Algonquin Eco-Watch, to a study released last week that indicates that a potential oil spill from the Enbridge line could affect Lake Huron shorelines, including Manitoulin Island.
“It is a disaster waiting to happen,” said Mr. Wilton.
Mr. Wilton added, “somewhere all of this is going to have to stop, or what are our kids and their kids going to have that is any good.”
As reported by Canadian Press (CP) on March 31, 2016, hundreds of kilometers of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron shoreline are at risk of contamination if an Enbridge pipeline that runs between them rupture. The findings were released in a study by the University of Michigan Water Centre, and supported by the National Wildlife Federation, and is based on 840 computer simulations of possible spills from twin lines that run across the floor of the straits linking the two lakes.
Enbridge says the two lines, which form part of the 63 year old Line 5 pipeline, has never leaked and remains in good shape, reported CP.
The study looked at the potential fallout for up to five days after a theoretical leakage and found that along with significant contamination around the pipeline itself in Michigan, an oil slick could travel as far as Manitoulin Island and the south Bruce Peninsula area of Lake Huron.
CP reported that David Schwab, a hydrodynamics expert who directed the study, said that when all simulated spills are plotted on a map, 1,160 kilometres of shoreline in the U.S. and Canada are considered potentially vulnerable. But the study based these simulations on the assumption that no actions are taken to contain the spread of an oil spill, which it notes is unlikely.
Mr. Schwab was quoted by CP as saying the study was designed to look at the worst case impacts of a spill, and he hopes the information will help in spill response planning and with any government decisions about the pipeline. Environmentalists are pushing to have them removed, saying the aging pipelines threaten the environment.
