Sierra Club Calls on DNR Director Creagh to Deny Graymont Land Sale

Decision Expected at Natural Resources Commissions Meeting Thursday

Media Contact: Anne Woiwode, anne.woiwode@sierraclub.org , 517-484-2372 x 11
Note:  Sierra Club Forest Ecologist Marvin Roberson will be available at the NRC Meeting Referenced in this release.

LANSING--Sierra Club today called on Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Keith Creagh to reject the sale of DNR lands to Graymont, a Canadian limestone mining company. If approved by Creagh, the proposed sale would constitute the largest sale of publicly owned land to a private company in Michigan’s history.  Creagh’s decision could come as soon as Thursday at the Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC) meeting in Roscommon. 

“Director Creagh should follow the law with regard to disposal of state lands and deny this proposed sale,” said Marvin Roberson, Sierra Club Forest Ecologist.  “As proposed, the Graymont sale would establish a dangerous precedent and undermine our long-standing Michigan tradition of ensuring publicly owned lands that we value today are also there for future generations of Michiganders.”

Sierra Club’s concerns were detailed in a March 16 letter to Director Creagh and will be presented at the NRC meeting Thursday.  In the letter, Sierra Club outlined Creagh’s failure to comply with requirements under state law regarding the sale and disposal of state lands. Other concerns include the state’s failure to make the necessary determination that the proposed Graymont sale involves land that has been designated “surplus” under state law.  Moreover, the scale of the transaction—involving ten times the land of any previous land sale—could set a precedent for other similar sales of that magnitude.

“The DNR has an obligation to manage our public lands to serve the interests of Michigan citizens, who put a very high value on the many benefits our state lands give us,” said Roberson. “Director Creagh is obliged to ensure that he and his agency are serving the long-term interests of the people of Michigan, and the handling of the Graymont proposal fails to comply with that duty.”

Sierra Club’s letter to Director Creagh is available here.  Information about the Graymont proposal is posted on the DNR’s website at http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10368_11797_66953---,00.html

News Release: Federal Lawsuit Targets Enbridge Pipeline in Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     More Information:

Thursday, January 15, 2015                       Marvin Roberson  906-360-0288

Sierra Club Lawsuit Targets Massive Oil Pipeline
First-Ever Environmental Review Sought for 60-Year-Old Michigan Pipeline  

LANSING, MI—A federal permit decision allowing a controversial decades-old pipeline to operate in Michigan while bypassing scrutiny under a federal environmental law is being challenged in federal court by the Sierra Club, the organization announced today. 

The Sierra Club filed suit today against the U.S. Forest Service to block a federal permit required to operate the controversial Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which travels through Michigan from Superior, WI to Sarnia, Ontario.  A small leak in the pipeline along an Upper Peninsula stretch was the focus of recent attention and points to the potential threat posed by a 60-year-old pipeline that has never been subject to rigorous environmental review.  The pipeline travels through the Huron-Manistee National Forest, requiring a permit from the forest service. 

“We want the court to simply require the Forest Service to use the same standards for environmental analysis as for any other project of this type and magnitude,” said Anne Woiwode, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.  "It is indefensible for the federal government to say that no environmental analysis is needed for a pipeline carrying a half-million barrels of oil a day across the Great Lakes, through a national forest , and under numerous sensitive areas.”  

The pipeline carries oil from Wisconsin to Ontario, crossing under sensitive areas near the Au Sable River and under the Mackinac Straits.  The Forest Service issued a permit in December, using an administrative procedure in an attempt to bypass more stringent study and analysis typically required under the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Bay City, is the first legal challenge to the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline along its entire length (nearly 1,100 miles), and the only formal request for an environmental analysis under NEPA. The pipeline has been in operation since 1953, and has never undergone federal environmental analysis.  It has operated across Forest Service lands without a valid permit since January 2013.

Charlie Weaver, a Sierra Club member and professional river guide on the Au Sable, said he believes the Forest Service needs to study the potential impacts of the pipeline before granting a new permit. 

“It’s hard to fathom the reasoning which allows an oil pipeline under a river like the Au Sable without any studies regarding the safety of the pipeline or what the effects of a rupture would be on the river,” said Weaver.

Thomas Buhr is a Sierra Club leader who lives in close proximity to the pipeline and the Au Sable River.  

“The Au Sable River is a crown jewel of cold water streams not just in Michigan, but the country,” said Buhr.  “An oil spill of any type would be a sin.  Let's use an ounce of prevention because the pound of cure would be costly with no guarantee of success.”

The Sierra Club is represented by noted environmental attorney Marianne Dugan. Ms. Dugan represented the Sierra Club in its successful suit to stop oil drilling near the Mason Tract area of the Au Sable. Ms. Dugan has litigated issues in this field for over 20 years. 

 “I’m a little amazed that regulators and the industry are repeatedly so cavalier about allowing industrial petroleum activity so close to a river like the Au Sable,” said Dugan.  

Enbridge, a Canadian Limited Partnership, is one of the largest petroleum pipeline companies in the world.  It is also the owner of Line 6B, which gushed almost a million gallons from a pipeline leak into the Kalamazoo River watershed in southwest Michigan in 2010.  This was the largest inland oil spill in Midwest U.S. history, and is already the costliest onshore spill cleanup in U.S. history, with cleanup efforts still underway.  Using data from Enbridge's own reports, the Polaris Institute has calculated that 804 spills occurred on Enbridge pipelines between 1999 and 2010, releasing about 161,000 barrels (25,000 cubic meters) of crude oil into the environment.

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Annual Au Sable Cedar Restoration Outings Scheduled for September

ANNUAL MASON TRACT CEDAR PLANTING OUTING

Join the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Anglers of the Au Sable for their Annual Au Sable River Clean Up and Tree Planting on Saturday, September 6th. We will meet at 10AM at the Au Sable Lodge, 471 Stephan Bridge Road, Grayling, MI. (M-72 east of Grayling and north of Stephan Bridge Road) to get organized and split up into assigned groups for the clean up. The Sierra Club will be working with the Cedars of the Au Sable group to weed, pick up litter, replace a few tree cages and replace a few cedar saplings on the banks of the Mason Tract of the South Branch of the Au Sable River. Bring work gloves, trowels, tree spades, etc. An afternoon barbecue at the Au Sable Lodge will follow. To RSVP your help or for more outing details (and local camping information if needed), contact Lorne Beatty at 810-632-7766 or at lorne.beatty@michigan.sierraclub.org.

UPPER MANISTEE CEDAR PLANTING OUTING

Join the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club, Cedars of the Au Sable and other conservation groups for a day of tree planting on the Upper Manistee River west of Frederic, Michigan on September 20th. We will meet at 9AM at the Old Fly Factory in downtown Grayling, next to the I-75 Business Loop bridge on the Au Sable River, to organize and split up into groups. Bring work gloves, trowels, tree spades, rain gear, etc. An afternoon barbecue back at the Old Fly Factory will follow the planting. To RSVP your help or for more information, contact Lorne Beatty at 810-632-7766 or at lorne.beatty@michigan.sierraclub.org.