TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Some environmental groups are
asking Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to get state government more directly
involved in efforts to determine the condition of an oil pipeline
beneath the Straits of Mackinac and to guard against spills.
More
than a dozen organizations signed a letter contending Snyder has the
power to demand answers from Enbridge Energy Partners LP about the line,
which was laid in 1953. It is part of the 1,900-mile Lakehead network,
which originates in North Dakota near the Canadian border. A segment
known as Line 5 runs through northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula before ducking beneath the Straits of Mackinac and winding up
in Sarnia, Ontario.
The line divides into two 20-inch pipes
beneath the straits at depths reaching 270 feet and carries nearly 23
million gallons of crude oil daily. The 5-mile-wide straits area, which
links Lakes Michigan and Huron, is ecologically sensitive and a major
tourist draw.
"To date, the position of the state has been that
they don’t have jurisdiction to do much but can encourage a review" by
the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said
Jim Olson, president of FLOW, based in Traverse City. "What has been
missing for 60 years is the state’s assertion of its authority as
trustee of the bottomlands and the waters of the Great Lakes."
Snyder
spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said, "We appreciate and share the concern
expressed in this letter for protecting Michigan’s waters. That’s
exactly why our administration, in coordination and cooperation with the
attorney general, has taken multiple steps to date, including the
formation of a special task force to look at these very issues."
The
state attorney general’s office and the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality posed a lengthy series of questions to Enbridge
about the pipeline in April. The agencies received the company’s
response last week, said Brad Wurfel, spokesman for the DEQ.
The
information will be made public after it’s reviewed by the task force
that DEQ Director Dan Wyant and Attorney General Bill Schuette appointed
to look into all pipelines transporting oil around the state, Brad
Wurfel said.
"It’s an enormous amount of information," he said.
"The task force members are looking forward to reviewing it. We’re as
concerned as anyone about the protection of Michigan’s waters."
Enbridge Energy Partners is a unit of Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge Inc.
Company
spokesman Larry Springer said the straits pipeline crossing "has
operated without incident since its construction, and through even
greater oversight and the use of new technology, Enbridge is committed
to maintaining this incident-free record into the future."
The
environmental groups said Michigan’s recent actions were encouraging but
more should be done. They said conditions of an easement that the state
granted Enbridge when the pipelines were placed beneath the straits
give Snyder leverage to demand detailed information about the contents,
safety and use of Line 5.
Another legal tool would be the Great
Lakes Submerged Lands Act, which provides for protection and
preservation of the public’s interest in bottomlands, the groups said.
State
leaders "have broad authority to demand that Enbridge conform to the
duties and standards and correct or address any violations or potential
violations of public trust law," the letter said.