Clash over underwater oil pipeline’s future
TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. An engineering company’s report on the future of twin oil pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac is flawed and biased in favour of continuing the existing system, critics said Monday. A business coalition said keeping oil flowing through the 64-year-old pipes is essential to Michigan’s economy.
Supporters and opponents of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 made their cases as officials convened a series of public feedback sessions on a draft analysis performed for the state of Michigan. The report submitted in June by Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems Inc. outlined six alternatives for the line, which transports about 23 million gallons daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. A nearly 8-kilometre segment divides into two pipes at the bottom of the waterway connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan.
“The report is unreliable and should not be used,” said Liz Kirkwood, executive director of For Love of Water, an environmental advocacy group that wants the underwater portion of Line 5 decommissioned. “Instead, the state should protect the Great Lakes from the potential of a catastrophic oil spill and exercise its legal authority to revoke Enbridge’s permission to use the waters and lake bed that belong to the people of Michigan.”
Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems is based in Calgary, Alberta — as is Enbridge, which paid for the study although the state requested it. State officials and representatives of the engineering company were hosting public discussions of the draft Monday in Holt and Traverse City and Tuesday in St. Ignace. A final version is due this fall.
Several business organizations, including the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and representatives of manufacturers and energy suppliers, said the Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems study provided more evidence that Line 5 should stay in operation.