Snyder,
Schuette asked to shut down “Line 5” over easement violations
Media Contacts: Liz Kirkwood, FLOW, liz@flowforwater.org,
office: 231-944-1568;
cell: 570-872-4956
and David Holtz, Sierra Club, 313-300-4454/david@davidholtz.org
Citing new research and documentation revealing cracks, dents, corrosion, and structural defects in the twin oil pipelines in the Mackinac Straits, 22 environmental and tribal groups today formally requested that Gov. Snyder and Attorney General Schuette shut down “Line 5” oil in the Straits based on Enbridge’s multiple easement violations.
The violations mean Enbridge is
operating illegally and has broken its legal agreement with the state and
people of Michigan.
Enbridge’s ongoing violations
related to pipeline design threaten the very safety and health of the Great
Lakes, and thus trigger the state’s duty to enforce its agreement with
Enbridge. Under the 1953 easement, the state must provide Canadian-based energy transporter Enbridge 90 days
to resolve any known easement violations. The state now has substantial
legal and factual cause to terminate the agreement with Enbridge to stop
the oil flow and protect the Great Lakes, public water supplies, and the Pure
Michigan economy, according to an April 13 letter to
Snyder and Schuette, signed by partner groups in the Oil & Water Don’t Mix
campaign.
“The law and this easement agreement
are clear: state leaders cannot wait another year or more while Enbridge
continues to violate safety conditions it agreed to and withholds safety
inspection and other data from the public and the state,” said environmental
attorney Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director of FLOW (For Love of Water) in
Traverse City. “Gov. Snyder and Attorney General Schuette must start the clock
to terminate the state’s easement agreement that allows Enbridge to operate the
Line 5 pipelines on state-owned bottomlands and waters.”
“The law and this easement agreement
are clear: state leaders cannot wait another year or more while Enbridge continues
to violate safety conditions it agreed to and withholds safety inspection and
other data from the public and the state." - Liz Kirkwood, Environmental
Attorney, Executive Director of FLOW (For Love of Water)
In their letter, the groups
identified eight specific violations of the easement and state law, including:
- Concealing information about cracks, dents, and corrosion with continued, sweeping assertions and misrepresentations that the Straits pipelines are in “excellent condition, almost as new as when they were built and installed” and have “no observed corrosion.” Of the nine rust spots on the eastern Straits pipeline, corrosion has eaten away 26 percent of the pipeline’s wall thickness in a 7-inch-long area, according to newly released company data.
- Failing to meet the pipeline wall thickness requirement due to corrosion and manufacturing defects. Newly released Enbridge data reveals that manufacturing defects in the 1950s resulted in pipeline wall thickness of less than half an inch in perhaps hundreds of sections and up to 41 percent less thick than mandated on the west Straits pipeline. Enbridge continues to boast about its “nearly one-inch-thick walls of Line 5’s steel pipe travelling under the Straits.”
- Failing to meet the “reasonably prudent person” provision by claiming that its steel pipelines lying underwater just west of the Mackinac Bridge since 1953 can last forever and do not require a plan for eventual decommissioning. The 63-year-old pipelines were built to last 50 years.
- Failing to demonstrate adequate liability insurance, maintain required coating and wood-slat covering to prevent rust and abrasion and adequately support the pipeline, resulting in stressed and deformed segments.
- Failing to adhere to federal emergency spill response and state environmental protection laws, including Act 10 of P.A. 1953, the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act (“GLSLA”), the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (“MEPA”), and public trust law.
