On June 23, 2021 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will conduct an environmental impact study (EIS) on the Enbridge Energy Inc. plan to build an underground oil and gas pipeline tunnel under The Great Lakes to house the Line 5 pipeline. The Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC), represented by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in partnership with Earthjustice, welcomes this examination of how the company’s proposed plan will impact this sacred area located between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recognizes the federally mandated responsibility to thoroughly investigate the impacts Enbridge would create by tunneling under the Great Lakes,” said BMIC President Whitney Gravelle. “An environmental review is vital as the Straits of Mackinac are a treaty-protected spiritual and sacred space that provides income, and food resources for Native and non-Native communities alike. Every community requires clean water, air, and soil as well as healthy fish, game, and plant populations to survive. Our ancestors understood this common human need when they negotiated the Treaty of March 28, 1836, with the United States. By treaty, we agreed to share part of our tribal lands with the United States and what became the State of Michigan but we reserved continued tribal-use of our treaty protected resources, including in the Straits of Mackinac.”
Lake Michigan and Lake Huron converge at the Straits at the narrowest point between the upper and lower part of Michigan. The Bay Mills Indian Community and other Anishinaabe peoples of the region consider the Straits a sacred place on Turtle Island.
“The Enbridge Line 5 tunnel and continued operation of the pipeline has the potential to cause profound damage to the Straits of Mackinac. The impacts need to be thoroughly studied and the necessary protections and alternatives identified,” said NARF Staff Attorney David L. Gover.
A long history of environmental damage caused by Enbridge’s continued operations throughout the area led to Bay Mills banishing Enbridge’s Line 5 from the reservation and the lands and waters of their ceded territory. Reasons for the banishment include:
- Enbridge’s existing system that includes Line 5 has already leaked at least 33 times spilling more than 1,100,000 gallons of oil.
- Enbridge has incurred $6.5 million in fines for failing to properly maintain and repair the existing system that includes the Line 5 dual pipeline.
- Enbridge continues operating existing Line 5 pipeline structures under an expired easement and in spite of years of tribal and public opposition.
The State of Michigan terminated the easement that allowed Enbridge to operate the Line 5 system citing, among other reasons for the revocation: “unreasonable risks of continued operation” and potential impact on Tribal Treaty rights at the Straits. Governor Whitmer demanded that Line 5 operations cease by May 12, 2021. In defiance of the state order, Enbridge is trespassing as it continues to use the existing Line 5 pipeline structures to transport oil and gas from one part of Canada to another for processing, looping down through Michigan and through the Bay Mills treaty protected Ceded Territory.
“Throughout its length, the pass-through Line 5 pipeline system puts people and ecosystems at risk of more oil leaks and spills. At the Line 5 portion where Enbridge proposes an underwater pipeline tunnel, the Anishinaabe people and many local residents currently depend upon the health of the Straits of Mackinac to support commercial and subsistence fishing and hunting,” said Gover. “For millennia human beings have lived, fished, and hunted at this sacred waterbody with a feeling of respect to be alive and present in such a unique place. Oil leaks and spills into the Great Lakes would be tragic.”
Read More:
- Bay Mills Indian Community Aims to Stop the Enbridge Line 5 Pipeline System and A Tunnel Under the Straits of Mackinac
- For Enbridge, Ignoring the Law is Business as Usual by Jeffrey Insko
The post Line 5 Pipeline Tunnel Impacts Considered appeared first on Native American Rights Fund.
On June 23, 2021 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will conduct an environmental impact study (EIS) on the Enbridge Energy Inc. plan to build an underground oil and gas pipeline tunnel under The Great Lakes to house the Line 5 pipeline. The Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC), represented by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in partnership with Earthjustice, welcomes this examination of how the company’s proposed plan will impact this sacred area located between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recognizes the federally mandated responsibility to thoroughly investigate the impacts Enbridge would create by tunneling under the Great Lakes,” said BMIC President Whitney Gravelle. “An environmental review is vital as the Straits of Mackinac are a treaty-protected spiritual and sacred space that provides income, and food resources for Native and non-Native communities alike. Every community requires clean water, air, and soil as well as healthy fish, game, and plant populations to survive. Our ancestors understood this common human need when they negotiated the Treaty of March 28, 1836, with the United States. By treaty, we agreed to share part of our tribal lands with the United States and what became the State of Michigan but we reserved continued tribal-use of our treaty protected resources, including in the Straits of Mackinac.”
Lake Michigan and Lake Huron converge at the Straits at the narrowest point between the upper and lower part of Michigan. The Bay Mills Indian Community and other Anishinaabe peoples of the region consider the Straits a sacred place on Turtle Island.
“The Enbridge Line 5 tunnel and continued operation of the pipeline has the potential to cause profound damage to the Straits of Mackinac. The impacts need to be thoroughly studied and the necessary protections and alternatives identified,” said NARF Staff Attorney David L. Gover.
A long history of environmental damage caused by Enbridge’s continued operations throughout the area led to Bay Mills banishing Enbridge’s Line 5 from the reservation and the lands and waters of their ceded territory. Reasons for the banishment include:
- Enbridge’s existing system that includes Line 5 has already leaked at least 33 times spilling more than 1,100,000 gallons of oil.
- Enbridge has incurred $6.5 million in fines for failing to properly maintain and repair the existing system that includes the Line 5 dual pipeline.
- Enbridge continues operating existing Line 5 pipeline structures under an expired easement and in spite of years of tribal and public opposition.
The State of Michigan terminated the easement that allowed Enbridge to operate the Line 5 system citing, among other reasons for the revocation: “unreasonable risks of continued operation” and potential impact on Tribal Treaty rights at the Straits. Governor Whitmer demanded that Line 5 operations cease by May 12, 2021. In defiance of the state order, Enbridge is trespassing as it continues to use the existing Line 5 pipeline structures to transport oil and gas from one part of Canada to another for processing, looping down through Michigan and through the Bay Mills treaty protected Ceded Territory.
“Throughout its length, the pass-through Line 5 pipeline system puts people and ecosystems at risk of more oil leaks and spills. At the Line 5 portion where Enbridge proposes an underwater pipeline tunnel, the Anishinaabe people and many local residents currently depend upon the health of the Straits of Mackinac to support commercial and subsistence fishing and hunting,” said Gover. “For millennia human beings have lived, fished, and hunted at this sacred waterbody with a feeling of respect to be alive and present in such a unique place. Oil leaks and spills into the Great Lakes would be tragic.”
Read More:
- Bay Mills Indian Community Aims to Stop the Enbridge Line 5 Pipeline System and A Tunnel Under the Straits of Mackinac
- For Enbridge, Ignoring the Law is Business as Usual by Jeffrey Insko
The post Line 5 Pipeline Tunnel Impacts Considered appeared first on Native American Rights Fund.