- State regulators plan to issue a key water discharge permit for the Line 5 tunnel, they announced Tuesday
- Enbridge Energy is still awaiting key federal and state approvals expected this year
- Line 5 fans and foes have been fighting for years over the best way to reduce oil spill risks from the lakebottom pipeline, with some supporting the tunnel and others calling for a pipeline shutdown
State environmental officials plan to reissue a key water quality permit for the Line 5 tunnel, according to a preliminary decision announced Tuesday afternoon.
Regulators with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy propose to permit Canadian oil company Enbridge Energy to discharge millions of gallons of treated wastewater per day into Lake Michigan as part of a proposed project to move the 73-year-old Line 5 oil pipeline into a concrete-lined tunnel deep beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
EGLE had originally granted the permit in 2021, but it has since expired.
If approved, the proposed permit would put Enbridge one step closer to commencing construction on a tunnel the company had originally planned to finish building by 2024.
The company is also awaiting a key tunnel construction permit that the US Army Corps of Engineers appears poised to grant, along with Clean Water Act approvals from EGLE. Meanwhile, the Michigan Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Michigan Public Service Commission acted properly when it issued another key tunnel permit in 2023.
Tuesday’s preliminary decision “is another step in the process,” said David Holtz, coalition coordinator for the anti-Line 5 group Oil & Water Don’t Mix, but “not a definitive step in the process … We still have major decisions coming.”
In a press release late Tuesday afternoon, EGLE announced it is accepting public comment on the proposed permit through June 30. A virtual public meeting and hearing is planned for 6 p.m. June 18. Here’s how to register.
Scott Dean, a spokesperson for EGLE, said the permit was “developed with sufficient requirements to be protective of water quality standards and designated uses” and that it comes with conditions “to ensure the discharge from the site meets both water quality standards and technology-based requirements.”
He said EGLE expects to make a permit decision by this fall.
Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said the company is reviewing the permit proposal and called renewal “appropriate,” given that “all requirements associated with this permit remain consistent and continue to be met.”
Duffy called the tunnel project “a commonsense solution that adds multiple layers of safety and environmental protection to an already safe pipeline.”
A draft permit posted to the EGLE website would entitle Enbridge to discharge “a maximum of 5 MGD of treated tunnel/portal construction water, tunnel boring machine air intervention water, slurry treatment facility wastewater, tunnel drainage, groundwater seepage, and noncontact cooling water, and an unspecified amount of stormwater” to Lake Michigan during tunnel construction.
Tuesday’s proposed decision follows a lengthy review process pertaining to Enbridge’s planned Line 5 tunnel, which aims to eliminate oil spill risks posed by the petroleum pipeline by moving the pipe into a concrete-lined tunnel deep beneath the lakebed.
State officials made several modifications as they reissued the permit, including new monitoring requirements.
Enbridge originally pitched the tunnel plan as a $500 million project, but permitting delays and legal disputes have stalled the plan, which is now expected to cost the company upwards of $1 billion.
The tunnel project emerged in 2018 amid widespread concern about the possibility that the aging pipeline could cause a catastrophic oil spill in the Straits. In the years since, environmental groups have fought to shut the pipeline down while Enbridge and its allies in business and labor have advocated for the tunnel plan.
Enbridge officials routinely contend the tunnel would make “a safe pipeline safer,” while opponents of the plan fear environmental harm from the yearslong construction project and damage to Indigenous artifacts in the Straits.
Others contend the tunnel project should be rejected because it would enable decades of continued fossil fuel transports through Michigan at a time of growing concern about climate change.
“Gas is $4 or $5 a gallon,” Holtz said. “The last thing Michigan should be doing is sinking billions of dollars into a century-long oil tunnel and lock us into volatile prices and spill risks and climate impacts when there are safer options.”
