Hello! We asked our panelists at the Line 5 Tunnel Vision event to provide written answers to your questions submitted in the online comments during the event and they graciously said they’d be happy to oblige. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to helping shut down Line 5 and stop the tunnel, and many thanks to our panelists at the Tunnel Vision event. 

Enjoy your June,

Ashley Rudzinski
Climate & Environment Program Director

PS If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to stream the video recording of the event—terrific insight, perspective, and information.

· Q: Who is paying for all of these legal fees?

Dan Bock: As of yet there are no legal fees for the State. Assistant Attorneys General are paid a salary and we do not receive overtime compensation, so state attorneys get paid the same regardless of how much work we do. So, while this has resulted in me and my colleagues doing a fair amount of additional work, it has not cost the State any money. This will change if we get to the point where this case goes to trial and we have to retain outside expert witnesses and that sort of thing, but we are not there yet (and we have argued that the case should be decided purely based on the law and undisputed facts, without the need for a trial).

· Q: What do we know about the construction companies’ safety records during construction and after completion of such a tunnel?

Brian O’Mara: In 2020, Enbridge reported they selected Great Lakes Tunnel Contractors (GLTC) to construct the tunnel. GLTC is a partnership between Livonia, Michigan–based Jay Dee Contractors, Inc. and the US Affiliate of Japan-based Obayashi Corporation. It is common practice for two or more tunneling contractors to form these joint ventures for large tunnel projects. I’m not sure if GLTC was ever awarded a contract for the work and if not, given the project delays and deficiencies, it’s possible another contractor may be hired if the project goes to construction. 

I’ve not done an exhaustive search on the safety records of Jay Dee or Obayashi, but I see in an Obayashi annual report that the company has had multiple fatalities over the last five years which is troubling (See screenshot below)

I’ve not seen any recent safety metrics for Jay Dee but I did work inside one of their tunnels in Milwaukee every day for more than one year. That tunnel had dangerous levels of methane gas, and they managed that properly but that was in the late 1980s. 

I did find an article that was critical of Jay Dee for problems with a Michigan tunnel where a large sinkhole developed and another where the tunnel boring machine (TBM) was abandoned. Obayashi was punished for bid rigging. See the link below to this article:

The safety, compliance, and governance records of whomever is selected by Enbridge should be thoroughly vetted before they are hired. 

· Q: Are there other companies that want to use the tunnel?

Brian O’Mara: I’m not aware of any other companies that want to use the tunnel— presumably to hang their utilities. I doubt any utility would risk their investment in an oil and gas tunnel given the possibility of a catastrophic release. Adding utilities capable of being an ignition source is not wise, in an open annulus tunnel. Again, it is rare to put an oil and gas pipeline in a confined space like a tunnel and the Enbridge open annulus design is susceptible to explosions, flooding, fire, freezing, lightning strikes, terrorism, earthquakes, and other ground movements .

The figure below from Enbridge shows the Closed Annulus (Full Backfill), Partially Closed Annulus (Half Backfill) and Open Annulus (No Backfill) designs.

·       This tunnel project was first proposed by a couple of students at MTU doing a class project for a couple of credits. So has the project been engineered by anyone other than those students?

Brian O’Mara: Multiple professional engineering firms, including those with tunneling experience, have been hired to complete the alternatives analysis, pre-design and design studies by the State of Michigan and Enbridge over the years. I don’t understand why Enbridge’s engineers and others have not proposed a closed or sealed annulus design for the tunnel or that EGLE, MPSC, and possibly the USACE have not recognized this and taken action to resolve it.

·       How can a million gallons of oil burn without air? 

Brian O’Mara: Nothing can burn without air. However, even if 1 million gallons of oil was leaked into the tunnel there would still be about 6.5 million cubic feet of air in the tunnel available to burn the oil and fuel the fire because Enbridge’s fire suppression plan is to close the tunnel portal and exit shafts and hope they can seal the tunnel–which I doubt can be done. The Enbridge design will actually help keep the fires burning. If Enbridge installed an advanced ventilation system and/or a foam fire suppression system (FFSS) it could extinguish a fire before it can cause catastrophic damage. An advanced ventilation system would allow the smoke from a fire to be removed in a stratified manager that allow first responders to enter the tunnel safely while the smoke is removed over their heads.

· Q: I imagine water pressure at certain depths is a factor?

Brian O’Mara: Yes, the water pressure is directly linked to the extent of soils, sediment, rock and water that is present above the tunnel, and it will be an extreme challenge if the tunnel is ever constructed.

· Q: What is the depth of the water for the proposed tunnel? Is water pressure significant?

Brian O’Mara: The final depth of the tunnel has not been defined, but it could be 600 feet or more if Enbridge keeps the tunnel in bedrock which is what was acquired. The maximum depth of the Straits is about 250 feet. The minimum thickness of bedrock above the tunnel could be 10 feet or less. 

Enbridge and I have both estimated the maximum overburden pressure (the weight of the soil, sediment and rock and groundwater above the tunnel would be about 250 pounds per square inch (psi), which is extremely high. The geologic profile below from Enbridge provides more details of the anticipated conditions for the tunnel.

Source File: https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/egle/Documents/Multi-Division/Line-5/Tunnel-Profile.pdf?rev=4fac0b75c4254afeb93e598577a1d526 

Any links to what Denise mentioned? Great speaker!

MiCAN Line Five, with links to history of our intervention

Despite decades of warnings from scientists and pledges from leaders, the world is burning more fossil fuels than ever and the atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gasses—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—reached new all-time highs last year. 

Only 16% of the Great Lakes froze over this winter, compared to 53% normally. 

Between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius of warming is the difference in the existence of coral reefs and the opportunity to prevent untold human suffering.

Q: Do Bay Mills and other tribes have lawsuits?

Holly: The letter that was sent to President Biden/Federal Government was signed by 30 Tribes. The Bad River Tribe has their own lawsuit against Enbridge. In addition to that, Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi have all appealed the MSPC decision to allow the Line 5 Tunnel

Q: Any live events this summer?

Ashley Rudzinski/Sean McBrearty: Groundwork Center plans to host events this summer, yes.

We will be offering a screening of the film Troubled Water, which will raise awareness about Line 5’s threat to the Great Lakes and feature a panel discussion in partnership with FLOW, Oil & Water Don’t Mix, and the film producers Friday evening, July 19. The film will be shown at the Garden Theater in Frankfort. More details and ticketing information will be shared soon! 

Groundwork will also be hosting our Solar on Schools Showcase online on June 20th from noon to 1pm—REGISTER FREE HERE. This event will highlight our new solar lesson kits and showcase recent student activism to bring renewable energy to area schools.

OWDM has monthly virtual campaign updates on the first Tuesday evening of every month, you can sign up at oilandwaterdontmix.org to get our emails and volunteer. We also have active volunteer groups in SW MI, SE MI, Lansing, and Traverse City, you can sign up for those through our volunteer link on the website. There will also be other events coming up so get on our email list and stay tuned!