Anti-Line 5 coalition raises alarms as tunnel project is placed on emergency permitting list

BY KYLE DAVIDSON, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—Opponents of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline are warning that a January 20 executive order could fast track the permitting process for the pipeline’s controversial tunnel project.

Indigenous activists and environmental organizations have advocated against the pipeline for years, raising particular concern about a four-mile stretch running through the Straits of Mackinac that connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

In 2018 the pipeline was dented in three places by an anchor strike, with another cable or anchor strike in 2019 harming the pipeline’s protective coating and severely damaging a support, breeding further fears of the pipeline rupturing. 

Opponents warn a spill from the pipeline would be catastrophic, with Line 5 transporting more than 22 million gallons of light crude oil and light synthetic crude through the straits daily.

Though activists argue the pipeline is too great a threat to continue operating, Enbridge signed an agreement with GOP Gov. Rick Snyder in 2018 to build a utility tunnel in the Straits aimed at containing any potential spills.

The dual pipelines would be relocated into a concrete-lined tunnel buried beneath the lakebed. However, in order to move forward with construction, the pipeline must receive permits from the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), the Michigan Public Service Commission and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

While the Army Corps of Engineers announced in March 2023 that it would extend its environmental review for the tunnel project, with plans to issues its draft environmental impact statement in Spring 2025, members of the anti-Line 5 coalition Oil and Water Don’t Mix are warning President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a national energy emergency may expedite the permit’s review.

The USACE has until Feb. 20  to designate emergency projects for expedited processing, with the Line 5 tunnel project among those under consideration for an emergency permit on the corps’ website.

Emergency approval would undermine the extended environmental review process, the coalition said.

“Rushing the approval process for an oil tunnel beneath the Great Lakes is the opposite of emergency action – it’s reckless endangerment,” Oil and Water Don’t Mix Campaign Coordinator Sean McBrearty said in a statement. “The Great Lakes provide drinking water for millions of people and support a multi-billion dollar tourism and fishing economy. Ensuring that the Great Lakes continue to be a shortcut for Enbridge to move Canadian oil that we don’t need is not an emergency. This is precisely the kind of project that demands careful scrutiny and robust public participation, not a rubber stamp.”

Trump’s executive order instructs the USACE to exercise its emergency powers to the fullest extent practicable, with the coalition warning these measures raise serious concerns about transparency and environmental protection.

“The public has a right to weigh in on projects that could impact their water, their livelihoods, and their communities for generations to come,” McBrearty said. “We’re putting the Army Corps on notice—we’re watching this process closely and will fight any attempt to bypass essential environmental reviews or silence public voices.”

Oil and Water Don’t Mix has demanded the USACE maintain its full environmental review process, ensure meaningful opportunities for public participation and reject any efforts to classify the project as an emergency in need of expedited review.

The National Wildlife Federation raised similar concerns, arguing that fast tracking the project would set a dangerous precedent and place the waters wildlife and people of the Great Lakes in danger.

When asked about the status of the tunnel project’s USACE permit, Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy emphasized that the pipeline is critical energy infrastructure.

“Enbridge submitted its permit applications in April 2020 for the Great Lakes Tunnel, a project designed to make a safe pipeline safer while also ensuring the continued safe, secure, and affordable delivery of essential energy to the Great Lakes region,” Duffy said in an email.

While the state has provided its environmental permits, and the MPSC has approved the company’s plan for the tunnel project, the project is still awaiting action on an environmental impact statement and a permitting decision five years later, Duffy said.

However, the permit issued by the MPSC is currently under appeal, following legal challenges filed by the Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, alongside several environmental organizations.

Enbridge must also redo one of its permits as part of a legal agreement with EGLE and the Bay Mills Indian Community, allowing its current water resources to expire on Feb. 25, 2026 while incorporating updated information on the project’s potential impacts to nearby wetlands into its new application.

EGLE Strategic Communications Advisor Scott Dean told the Advance in an email that the company had completed mapping of wetlands that could be impacted by the project and the Wetland Identification Program had performed their services in preparation for Enbridge’s wetlands protection and Great Lakes bottomlands permit application. However, this application has not been submitted yet, Dean said.

Additionally, Enbridge filed another application for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit last week, with its current permit set to expire on Oct. 1, 2025, Dean said. Initiated by the Clean Water Act in 1972, this permit aims to protect water quality by imposing limits on the amount of pollutants that can be discharged into a body of water.

READ MORE: Report says Line 5 tunnel project could cost 3 times initial estimate

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.