EDITORIAL: Hot air and dirty oil

The premier of Ontario last week threatened to cut off the oil and propane that flows into the U.S. from the Canadian province if the Trump administration imposes its threatened 25% tariff on imports.

Some residents of Wisconsin and Michigan were surely cheering.

The pipeline that sends millions of gallons of crude oil and propane through parts of the two states and their waters every day has spilled oil a number of times and has the potential to be an environmental catastrophe for Lakes Michigan and Huron. Attempts to force Enbridge Inc., the Canadian company that owns the pipeline, called Line 5, to shut it down have been going on for years.

In the same week the Canadian premier made his threat, it was reported that a different Enbridge pipeline had spilled 69,300 gallons of crude oil in Wisconsin’s Jefferson County on Nov. 11.

Meanwhile, battles over Line 5 are being fought on two fronts.

The Bad River Chippewa Band and environmental groups are trying to block Enbridge’s plan to reroute Line 5 through environmentally sensitive land near Lake Superior. A federal court ruled in 2023 that the pipeline was trespassing on the band’s land and had to be removed. The Wisconsin DNR then approved a wetland and waterway permit allowing the pipeline to be rerouted, but the band is suing to stop it on the grounds that it violates the Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act.

In Michigan, a coalition of environmental groups is carrying on a long-standing fight to rid the Straits of Mackinac of the menace Line 5 presents to its deep, clear water.

Twenty-two million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids are pumped daily through two 20-inch pipes that lie beneath the confluence of Lakes Michigan and Huron.

The 71-year-old pipelines cross a jagged underwater terrain, including a quarter-mile-wide spot where they are suspended over a canyon 300 feet under the surface. They are showing signs of deterioration and were damaged by a tug’s anchor in 2018.

Along its entire 645-mile length, Line 5 has leaked 35 times, spilling more than 1.1 million gallons of oil, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. An underwater oil spill could have devastating consequences in the freshwater seas that provide drinking water for millions and support a vulnerable ecosystem and an economy dependent on clean lakes.

Scientists predict that lake currents would carry substantial amounts of crude oil spilled in the Straits south into Lake Michigan to waters around Beaver Island and Charlevoix, Mich, and east into Lake Huron and the pellucid water surrounding Mackinac Island and even into Georgian Bay in the North Channel, home of some of the most pristine waters on earth.

It is not far fetched to assume that the taint of such a spill could cover most of Lake Michigan, including the water along the Ozaukee County shore.

University of Michigan scientists studied currents in the Straits of Mackinac and declared it “the worst possible place for an oil spill in the Great Lakes.”

In 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Enbridge to shut down Line 5, and the Michigan attorney filed a lawsuit to void Enbridge’s easement for pipelines in the Straits.

And yet, Line 5’s oil flows unabated. While it mounted a delaying action in courts, the company proposed a plan to put the pipes in a tunnel it would construct under the lake bed. The Michigan Department of Great Lakes and Energy approved the tunnel concept in 2021. Approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is required, and not likely to be decided until 2026. Gov. Whitmer remains a staunch opponent.

These developments have not quieted opposition groups. They maintain, rightly, that the pipelines do not belong in Lake Huron, whether in a tunnel or not. What’s more, even if the tunnel is approved it will be years before it can be built. In the meantime Line 5 remains an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

It’s seems unlikely that the hot air now being exchanged by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and President-Elect Donald Trump will result in carrying out their threats and causing the pipelines from Canada to dry up. But if that happens, there would be a bright side—Lakes Huron and Michigan, and miles of wetlands and natural areas inland, would be safe from Line 5 for a while at least.