To: Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Protect the Great Lakes from an oil pipeline spill
I am writing to submit my official comment in response to the State of Michigan's public comment period on the Line 5 alternatives analysis. I strongly support decommissioning Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. Oil pipelines present unacceptable risks and do not belong in the Great Lakes.
Other alternatives to decommissioning are not acceptable. Enbridge's Line 5 has already spilled 29 times and released more than 1 million gallons of oil and gas products into the environment. The Straits of Mackinac are the worst possible place for an oil pipeline rupture. Michigan should not put the Great Lakes and our economy at risk from a catastrophic oil spill.
Why is this important?
Every day 64-year-old pipelines push nearly 23 million gallons of oil through the heart of the Great Lakes. What if they ruptured?
These aging pipelines, called Line 5, are owned by Canadian company Enbridge and lie exposed in the water at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. A spill here would be catastrophic.
Another Enbridge pipeline ruptured in Michigan in 2010 and spilled 1 million gallons of heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. It was the largest land-based oil spill in U.S. history, and is took years to clean up. Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline through the Great Lakes is 15 years older than that one was when it ruptured.
PIPELINES FAIL. THESE AGING PIPELINES IN THE STRAITS ARE NOT WORTH THE RISK. WE NEED YOU TO HELP PREVENT A DISASTER.
Michigan 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.
Michigan's year-long study of Line 5 alternatives has been released and the state is gathering public comment. Now is the time to submit your comment calling for the only way to truly protect the Great Lakes from an oil spill: shut down the Enbridge Line 5 pipelines through the Straits of Mackinac.