'Catastrophic': Fast-Tracking of Line 5 Tunnel Under Great Lakes Denounced as Big Oil Gift From Trump
"This is a travesty and a danger to the Great Lakes," wrote one activist.
Environmentalists warned Wednesday that the drinking water for over 40 million people is now at greater risk after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under U.S. President Donald Trump announced fast-track procedures for the controversial Line 5 oil and gas pipeline tunnel project in the nation's Great Lakes region.
The emergency declaration for the project stems from Trump's executive order declaring a national energy emergency on his first day back in the White House.
"The only energy 'emergency' the American people face is Trump's efforts to disregard clean air and water safeguards in order to rush through dirty, dangerous fossil fuel projects," said Mahyar Sorour, a director at the green group Sierra Club, in response to the news.
The Line 5 pipeline carries oil and gas for 645 miles from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, crossing Michigan's two peninsulas, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A section of the pipeline runs below the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The pipeline is owned by the Canadian oil and gas transport company Enbridge, which has proposed relocating the section of the Line 5 pipeline that runs below the Straits of Macinack into a tunnel below the lakebed. The company claims this solution, its "Great Lakes Tunnel Project," will eliminate any chance of a "pipeline incident in the Straits."
Data compiled by a National Wildlife Federation researcher and released in 2017 found that Line 5 had spilled at least 1.13 million gallons of oil in 29 incidents between 1968 and 2017.
"Trump has proven yet again that he'll back Big Oil and corporate interests over the safety and well-being of real people," said Sierra Club Michigan chapter director Elayne Coleman. "Fast-tracking the Line 5 tunnel puts us at risk for catastrophic damage. An oil spill would contaminate the water for tens of millions, cost billions of taxpayer dollars to clean up, and destroy Michigan fishing and tourism."
Coleman also called on Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to step in and stop the project.
Oil and Water Don’t Mix, a Michigan group that opposes Line 5, wrote Wednesday that "Now would be a good time for Gov. Whitmer to stand up for the Great Lakes and oppose the Line 5 tunnel."
In a social media post, veteran water protection advocate and author Maude Barlow called the move by Trump a "travesty and a danger to the Great Lakes!"
The special designation for the Line 5 tunnel project comes on the heels of a Keystone oil pipeline spill earlier in April. On April 8, that pipeline was shut down after it ruptured, spilling an estimated 3,500 barrels of oil into an agricultural field in North Dakota.
