Prevent a Catastrophic Great Lakes Oil Spill
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Prevent a Catastrophic Great Lakes Oil Spill To the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Michigan Agency for Energy, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Governor, Michigan Attorney General, and Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board: I am writing to submit my official comment in response to the State of Michigan’s Line 5 final alternatives analysis dated October 26 and released on November 20. I am deeply disappointed in this final analysis. A draft alternatives report released in June was riddled with errors and omissions, and the final report contains most of the same failures. This report fails to meet its overall purpose of “providing the State of Michigan and other interested parties with an independent, comprehensive analysis of alternatives to the existing Straits Pipelines, and the extent to which each alternative promotes the public health, safety, and welfare and protects the public trust resources of the Great Lakes.” It lacks credibility because its author is Dynamic Risk, a firm with ties to Enbridge, the Canadian energy transport company that owns Line 5. Even worse, it absurdly underestimates the impact of a spill and ignores a viable alternative to Line 5 – use of existing infrastructure. An independent expert review in December 2015 documented the practicality of this alternative. Decommissioning Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac is the only alternative that will prevent an oil spill with catastrophic consequences for the Great Lakes and the State of Michigan. Moreover, this final alternative report affirms that decommissioning is a feasible option with zero risks to the Great Lakes and minimal economic impacts to Michigan customers (e.g., two cents more at the gas pump and roughly 10 to 25 cents more for propane in the Upper Peninsula). It is time for the state to reject the flawed study, exercise its affirmative legal duty as public trustee of the Great Lakes and bottomlands, and shut down Line 5. The state should use that authority to revoke the 1953 easement agreement that Enbridge has consistently violated. The risk of a spill is too great to allow Line 5 to continue to operate in the Great Lakes. Our state government should not put the Great Lakes, our economy, health, drinking water, fisheries, and way of life at risk from a catastrophic oil spill any longer. In fact, on November 16, the Coast Guard Coast commandant testified again to Congress that his agency is not prepared to clean up a large-scale pipeline oil spill in the Great Lakes. I urge you to act as public trustees of our waters and bottomlands, enforce the easement in light of Enbridge’s ongoing violations, and begin the process of decommissioning Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac to protect the Great Lakes from a catastrophic oil spill. The State of Michigan has a legal duty to take this enforcement action. Enbridge’s ongoing violations cannot be remedied. It is time for the state to act decisively and with urgency. Specifically, the report on alternatives to Line 5 in the Mackinac Straits: 1. Fails to follow the recommendations and standards outlined in the Michigan Petroleum Pipeline Task Force Report, which resulted from a process created by the governor and co-chaired by the attorney general, and therefore cannot be used by the State of Michigan “in making decisions about the future of the Straits Pipelines.” 2. Neglects to provide the state with an independent, fair analysis of the alternatives to Line 5 as required by the Task Force Report. This final report remains biased toward allowing Line 5 to continue to operate and/or allowing Enbridge to build new oil infrastructure in the Straits of Mackinac and further expand its operations. That bias grows out of past, and potentially future, business relationships between Enbridge and the report’s authors. 3. Fails to analyze existing pipeline infrastructure as an alternative to Line 5 in the Straits, which the state required Dynamic Risk to analyze, and leaving it out conflicts with Task Force recommendation 3 (b). It is unacceptable that the contractor eliminated this alternative without any analysis. The 1953 easement granted with strict conditions by the state to Enbridge does not guarantee transport of 540,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and natural gas liquids. In fact, the 1953 MPSC Order states 300,000 bpd, which means Enbridge is currently operating Line 5 at 80 percent over design capacity. 4. Fails to analyze new evidence disclosed by Enbridge affecting the pipeline’s integrity, including external corrosion, 48 bare metal spots caused by the installation of screw anchors, compromised cathodic protection, and historic excessive pipeline spans greater than the 75-feet limit (including a 286-foot span that was unsupported for years), as required by the legal operating agreement with the State of Michigan. Dynamic Risk’s rationale, in part, is that "it would be inappropriate to speculate on any of the above aspects of the coating condition." 5. Fails to consider tribal sovereign treaty rights and feedback on the basis that Dynamic Risk was not a party to tribal and state consultations, which is an unacceptable dismissal of input by a key stakeholder. 6. Grossly underestimates the total economic spill costs at between $147 million and $310 million, when Enbridge’s cleanup costs of its 2010 Line 6B pipeline oil spill along a 40-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River cost more than $1.2 billion. 7. Overestimates an impact to propane supply, greatly exceeding what independent experts have determined would be necessary to provide the Upper Peninsula’s Rapid River facility with an alternative supply. The flawed report finds that up to 35 railcars per week or 15 truckloads per day would be necessary, while another study found it would take only one railcar or 3 - 4 truckloads per day to replace the Line 5 propane supply to the U.P. 8. Continues to show an unfair bias towards building a tunneled pipeline in the Mackinac Straits. The report estimates a much lower cost for a tunnel than other estimates for this type of infrastructure; it fails to consider the risk of a spill to the Great Lakes, rivers and streams from other portions of the 64-year-old pipeline if the Straits portion were rebuilt. Dynamic Risk prefers new pipelines, which was evident when the firm aggressively promoted building a tunnel in its proposal to do this report, and its analysis is deeply flawed. Submitted December 22, 2017 The following signatures were collected via oilandwaterdontmix.org. Total signature count: 5,973 Total Signatures: 5,973 Signatures on Submit Your Line 5 Comment - oilandwaterdontmix.org name state countryadditional comments 1 Liz Kirkwood MI US 2 Alee Johnson US Hello, Im from Green Bay, and I very much would like to get line 5 shut down ASAP as well. Not just reading about exterior issues with the pipeline, but what about the interior integrity of it? With a 64 year old line, what about stress cracks and inner wear and tear? We're very fortunate to have the Great Lakes along with its eco system, and from what i have read abroad about this line, it obviously needs to be shut down. Be responsible.. stop and replace it in a non threatening environment! 3 Mitchell McNeil IL US There's no level of risk that is acceptable in this very unique situation. Zero. Decommission Line 5 immediately. No more talk. No more studies. No more running out the clock. No more lies. No more b.s. - please! 4 Bonnie Weise US 5 Emily Griffith IN US 6 William Burdett MI US 7 William Clements MI US The track record of Enbridge (spills, cover ups) and enormous risks to all of Michigan from this aging and unnecessary pipeline make this a no-brainer. What conceivable advantage to their constituents do the Michigan officials see in allowing this risk to continue another day? Please act to protect our greatest natural resource. 8 Michael Salgat MI US Keeping Line 5 operational is not worth the risk to our drinking water, our health and the livelihood of the many small businesses dependent on the Great Lakes for tourism revenue. Please shut it down now. 9 Mark Bradley WI US 10 Myles Amor MI US 11 Megan Dykema MI US Love Lake Michigan and keep her safe 12 Phillip Mikesell MI US 13 Yaloda Dye MI The unthinkable willhappen if this line goes thru, instead lets turn to alternative fuels that willnot DEATROY 205 OF THE WORLDS FRESH WATER ALONG WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF MICHIGAN'S LUCRITIVE FISHING. 14 Abby Keessen IN US 15 Barbara Hopkins MI US Please don't let this be another win for big oil. We have such precious resources-we need to protect them! 16 Phil Young IL US 17 Jason Moritz MI US This is America, right? We see something's busted and we shut it down and fix it. Line 5 is busted. Shut it down and fix it! 18 Eli Potter AZ US 19 Jeff Brady MI US 20 Silas Bialecki MI US 21 Ruxandra-Ana Iacob MI US 22 Donald Erskine MI US Shut down line 5. End violation of Native Treaties 23 Laurie Blacker MI US Laurie Blacker 24 Heather Hewett AZ US 25 Helen and Mike MI US We must not continue to expose the Great Lakes to the destruction this pipeline will likely cause. Lambert 26 Mark Hopkins DE US Please act now to protect the Great Lakes! 27 Gregory Culley US 28 Elizabeth Leclerc MI US M.S. in Environmental Science here: shut down line 5. The pipeline is not worth risking the health and viability of Michigan waterways.