Citizens groups, including the Groundwork Center, sharply criticized proposed legislation introduced today that would permanently block public access to pipeline safety records in Michigan, including for high-risk pipelines running through the Straits of Mackinac operated by the controversial Canadian oil conglomerate Enbridge, Inc.
The Michigan Land Use Institute is pleased to sign on to this letter to remind the governor and attorney general of the important legal authority they hold on behalf of Michigan’s citizens to protect our public trust in the Great Lakes. The State of Michigan retains full legal authority over all activities that occur in the waters and bottomlands of the Great Lakes-and requires complete transparency, disclosure, and accountability from Enbridge regarding the pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac.
On June 24, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council hosted the Northern Michigan Pipeline Symposium in Petoskey, bringing together state and national groups involved-or concerned-about the aging oil pipelines running through the Mackinac Straits. The event provided a forum for regulators and Enbridge, the company that owns the pipeline, to reassure the public about the threat of a spill. Unfortunately, most people left just as concerned about the risk as when they arrived.
Hundreds of people turned out last week to pepper local officials and employees of Enbridge, Inc. about the 60-year-old oil pipeline running under the Mackinac Straits. They wanted to know what’s being done to prevent underwater leaks, and how a rupture would be contained before it gravely damaged one of Michigan’s most beautiful places. By the end of the meeting it was clear that opponents had more questions than Enbridge managed to answer.
Last month, a surprisingly large number of people showed up at a remote northern Michigan park to rally against something that, weeks earlier, few of them had ever heard about: the twin, 60-year-old pipelines that transport 22 million gallons of oil a day beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Attracting a crowd to a distant location for a rally about a largely unknown pipeline is impressive; so is reviving a moribund organization to produce the event in just six weeks.
Organizers are rallying at Bridge View Park in St. Ignace to warn that there’s a 60-year-old oil pipeline beneath the Straits, operated by the same company responsible for the Kalamazoo pipeline oil spill, and that it’s putting the Great Lakes ecosystem at serious risk.