Shorewood wades into oil pipeline dispute
The Village of Shorewood has waded into the controversy over the 63-year-old oil pipelines that run along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, the churning deepwater channel that divides Lakes Michigan and Huron.
The board last week unanimously approved a resolution that calls for closing the two steel pipelines that can collectively carry 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas. The lines are operated by a subsidiary of Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge Inc., and are part of a network of pipelines across Wisconsin and Michigan that can collectively carry some 2.5 million barrels of oil.
The board made the move after being approached by Eric Gietzen, chairman of the Surfrider Foundation-Milwaukee.
“Surfrider Foundation-Milwaukee represents the freshwater enthusiasts who surf, paddle, and swim in the watersheds that define the Great Lakes Basin. Our community enjoys access to 20% of the planet’s surface fresh water, and our goal is to keep that water as clean and accessible as possible," Gietzen said in a news release.
"A rupture in this pipeline would be devastating, not only to Shorewood, but to all the communities that depend on the Great Lakes for recreation, tourism, and income.”
The measure passed Tuesday night. Similar resolutions calling for the shutdown of the twin pipelines or vastly restricting how they are allowed to operate have been passed by dozens government bodies in Michigan.
The concern is the pipes, which have never had a rupture in the 4-mile underwater stretch where they cross the Straits just west of the Mackinac Bridge, will at some point fail, and the time to take them out service is before a leak happens.
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Enbridge maintains the lines were specifically engineered to withstand the harsh environment of the Straits and that regular maintenance over the past six decades means they can continue to operate indefinitely.
Enbridge operates a sister pipeline in lower Michigan that ruptured in 2010 and unleashed more than 1 million gallons into a creek flowing into the Kalamazoo River, a tributary to Lake Michigan. The cleanup cost $1.2 billion. The spill also cost the company $177 million in a settlement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last summer.
Federal investigators attributed the company's slow response to alarms showing a problem with that ruptured pipe to a corporate "culture of deviance."
Enbridge officials say they have learned from the accident, and note that spills have dramatically decreased since the Kalamazoo River accident.
Enbridge critics contend the company has been out of compliance with a state of Michigan requirement that the Mackinac Straits pipelines not run over the undulating lakebed without natural or manmade supports every 75 feet. The company acknowledges it has been out of compliance with that requirement but is working to remedy that with increased supports on the erosion-prone lakebed.
The Straits are considered a particularly vulnerable spill site in the Great Lakes because the volume of water moving through is roughly equivalent to 10 times that of the flow of Niagara Falls. That flow typically runs west to east, though depending on weather conditions, can also flow east to west. That exposes vast stretches of shoreline on Lakes Michigan and Huron to oil slicks were a spill to occur.
Computer models developed by a University of Michigan researcher, working with the National Wildlife Federation, which has sued to shut the lines down, show an oil spill in the Straits could spread as far east as Michigan's Garden Peninsula north of Door County. That’s a long way from Shorewood, but board members said they felt they had an obligation nonetheless to speak about the risks the lines pose to the lake that defines the village’s eastern boundary.
"We supported the resolution because we have a vested interest in being good stewards of Lake Michigan and the environment for generations to come," said Village Trustee Ann McKaig. "We also feel it is important to be part of important conversations that occur at local, state and national levels because our residents care about making a positive impact.”
Read the series
To read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Oil and Water series, about the impact of oil pipeline expansion on the state and Great Lakes region, at jsonline.com/oilandwater.