WASHINGTON DC – Army Corps of Engineers have been granted emergency permitting power to fast-track Enbridge’s Line 5 underwater pipeline construction just as opponents warn against doing so.
Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline stretches from northern Wisconsin to Sarnia Ontario, carrying more than 22 million gallons of light crude oil and light synthetic crude through the Straits of Mackinac daily.
In 2018, the pipeline was dented in three places by an anchor strike. Enbridge later agreed to replace a four-mile section of the dual pipelines running through the Straits of Mackinac with a new segment housed in a concrete-lined tunnel located in the bedrock beneath the lakebed in order to contain any potential oil spills.
However, opponents have continued to call for a shut down of the pipeline, raising concerns about how construction would impact nearby wetlands and warning the pipeline’s contents carry risks for explosion within the tunnel, leading to a spill.
In February, members of the anti-Line 5 coalition Oil and Water Don’t Mix raised alarms that the project would be expedited under Trump’s executive order. The Coalition argued this move would undermine the extended environmental review the Corps is conducting for the project.
In order for the tunnel project to begin construction, it must receive permits from three agencies, the Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy, the Michigan Public Service Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE.
In 2023, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it would extend its environmental review for the tunnel project, with plans to issue a draft environmental impact statement this spring. With the Corps’ website previously listing the project for emergency permit consideration, Oil and Water Don’t Mix has called on the USACE to maintain its full environmental review process, ensure meaningful opportunities for public participation and reject any efforts to classify the project as an emergency in need of expedited review.
The Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio River Division announced each of its seven districts is authorized to use special emergency processing procedures, including the Detroit district overseeing the permitting process for the tunnel project.
The USACE’s website no longer lists the project among those under consideration for emergency permitting. At the time of publication the Corps lists the efforts as pending review for its environmental impact statement. It has not announced whether it will move forward with the permit for the tunnel project using emergency processing provisions.
Debbie Chizewer, a managing attorney at Earthjustice, which has opposed Enbridge in several cases involving Line 5, said they were not surprised to see the Corps is moving forward with an emergency process.
However, neither the executive order nor emergency provisions excuse the Corps from complying with the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act, Chizewer said.
“If the Corps advances the Line 5 tunnel project through this process, we expect them to comply with the law. The truth is there is no national energy emergency, and even if there was, Line 5 is a pipeline that transports Canadian oil primarily to Canada. It will not affect the US energy supply. The state of Michigan can still do the right thing and reject permits for this dangerous project,” she said.
Read the rest of this story at Michigan Advance
