Canadian energy provider Enbridge has resumed service on its 645-mile Line 5 pipeline using a temporary bypass around a section damaged during an August accident in northern Wisconsin, but the company faces another hurdle involving the pipeline’s crossing of the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan.
Michigan state regulators are reconsidering a previously issued environmental permit for the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel, which would be built under the strait to house a replacement for the twin Line 5 pipelines that currently lie in the lake bed. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is also asking Enbridge to find an alternative that would allow it to shut down existing pipelines without waiting for the tunnel to be built.
“I urge Enbridge to look for an alternative to both the existing dual pipelines and the tunnel, and to begin that work now,” he wrote in a Sept. 9 letter to Enbridge President and CEO Gregory Ebel. “Develop a planned and orderly transition that protects Michigan families and businesses and gets oil out of the Straits much sooner.”
He cites the Wisconsin accident as one of the reasons why the pipeline should be shut down in his state.
A portion of the Line 5 pipeline near Saxon, Wis., was damaged in August when an unoccupied flatbed truck delivering crews to the site fell into an excavation site and struck the pipeline, releasing natural gas liquids (NGLs), primarily propane and butane. NGLs are transported in the pipeline as liquids, but when exposed to normal outdoor conditions, they quickly vaporize into gases.
There were no injuries in the accident that occurred at the east end of the existing Line 5 pipeline, where Enbridge is adding a bypass valve to connect the 12-mile-long pipeline that crosses tribal lands to a $1 billion, 41-mile stretch to a new pipeline it is building to bypass tribal lands. The Bad River side of Lake Superior Chippewa is currently in legal proceedings to remove the pipeline.
Enbridge reported on September 12 that crews in Wisconsin successfully pressure tested the temporary bypass and are currently working on the process of completing the return to service of Line 5.
“Work continues on the two priorities related to the incident: the safe control and remediation of the incident site and the return to service of the line, following a plan approved by the federal regulator, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA),” the company says.
In Michigan, the Great Lakes Tunnel Project, the four-mile-long tunnel proposed to shut down two decades-old pipelines, is drawing renewed opposition from Whitmer and Phil Roos, director of the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). Both Whitmer and Roos say the state needs to consider the impact of a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling on project permits that EGLE issued in July. On July 31, the court voided the Michigan Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) December 2023 approval of the project, stating that it had not properly applied the Michigan Environmental Protection Act when reviewing the proposed project.
“With the Michigan Supreme Court invalidating MPSC’s permit because its analysis was too narrow, we understand that EGLE’s permit may need further review through the legal process,” Roos said in a Sept. 9 letter. “Until all these legal issues are resolved, the conditions of EGLE’s permit prevent construction of the tunnel entrance from proceeding.”
“I’ve been clear from day one that we need to get the existing Line 5 pipelines out of the Straits of Mackinac as quickly and safely as possible,” Whitmer said, calling the 73-year-old undersea pipelines a “ticking time bomb.”
In his letter to Ebel, Whitmer notes that the Michigan portion of the pipeline has experienced anchor strikes in the past and “At this time, the line is closed due to damage from a truck that spilled more than one million gallons of natural gas liquids.”
Enbridge did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Whitmer’s call to abandon the Great Lakes Tunnel project.
