TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – A proposal to run an oil pipeline beneath a crucial section of the Great Lakes cleared its final hurdle Wednesday, gaining approval of a Michigan panel created a week earlier in a dash to complete the deal before Republican Gov. Rick Snyder leaves office.
The three-member Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority unanimously backed an agreement between the state and Canadian pipeline company Enbridge to drill a tunnel through bedrock up to 100 feet (30.4 meters) below the more than 4-mile-wide (6.4 kilometer) channel that links Lakes Huron and Michigan.
A new segment of pipeline would extend through the tunnel, replacing twin pipes that have lain along the lake bed since 1953. They are part of Enbridge’s Line 5, which carries crude oil and natural gas liquids used in propane from Superior, Wisconsin, through northern Michigan to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario.
Line 5 has drawn fierce criticism in recent years from environmental groups, native tribes and tourism-related businesses fearful of a rupture that, according to worst-case scenarios outlined by university researchers, could pollute hundreds of miles of Great Lakes shoreline.
Enbridge has steadfastly defended the pipelines, contending they are in sound condition and could last indefinitely. But with public pressure mounting amid reports of gaps in protective coating and dents from a ship anchor strike in April, the company embraced the tunnel option.