Line 5 opponents challenge state environmental department permits, calling them ‘legally deficient’

As state officials scrutinize permits that would allow a Canadian energy company to build a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, four Tribal Nations and a host of environmental groups have filed a challenge in hopes of overturning the state’s decision.

On Thursday, The Bay Mills Indian Community, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians submitted a request for a contested case on a set of permits the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy issued in July.

The Environmental Law and Policy Center, Flow Water Advocates, the Michigan Climate Action Network and the National Wildlife Federation also requested a contested case in a separate petition.

Both challenges come on the heels of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s announcement that the state was taking another look at the permits following a Michigan Supreme Court decision, which determined state energy regulators had failed to consider the environmental impacts that could come from extending the lifespan of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline when they approved another permit for the project.

Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline stretches 645 miles from northwestern Wisconsin, through Michigan, into Sarnia, Ontario. The pipeline diverges into two segments within the Great Lakes, with the dual pipelines resting on the lakebed.

Tribal nations, environmental activists and state officials have pushed to have the pipeline shut down for years amid concerns that the pipeline could rupture, spilling crude oil into the ecologically sensitive Straits of Mackinac.

Following a 2018 anchor strike which dented the pipeline in three places, Enbridge and the state agreed to build a utility tunnel below the lakebed to house a replacement segment for the pipeline.

While the company has championed the tunnel as a solution to the threat of future anchor strikes, and as a means of containing any potential oil spills, pipeline opponents argued the tunneling process poses a significant threat to the environment, as well as to Indigenous cultural resources.

“The Line 5 tunnel project, if allowed to proceed, will irreversibly destroy tribal cultural resources including burials, tribal lifeways, and the Straits of Mackinac, a sacred space for the Anishinaabe,” said David Gover, a managing attorney for the Native American Rights Fund.

The fund is representing the Bay Mills Indian Community, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Earthjustice.

There is no way to mitigate the impact to these resources, Gover said in a statement, stressing that they would be permanently destroyed.

In a statement, Dave Scott, a senior attorney at the Environmental Law and Policy Center, argued the water resource permit EGLE approved is “deficient under Michigan environmental laws.”

“That’s even clearer after the Michigan Supreme Court’s recent opinion,” Scott said. “Michigan law requires a robust environmental review and analysis of alternatives to the tunnel. We look forward to presenting our arguments and we hope that EGLE will do the right thing and ultimately deny this legally deficient permit.”

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy directed the Michigan Advance to a statement it issued in response to Whitmer’s request to reexamine the EGLE permits.

“Let’s be clear — we already have an agreement with the State of Michigan to advance the Great Lakes Tunnel Project,” Duffy said. “Without years of litigation and political intervention, this project would be moving toward completion.”