Group Forms Human Oil Drop in Call to Shut Down Aging Great Lakes Pipeline

Activists formed a human oil drop on the Capitol grounds during a rally Thursday asking state leaders to immediately require Enbridge Energy to shut down Line 5 to avoid an environmental disaster. (Photos courtesy of Food & Water Watch)

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Protesters formed a human oil drop outside the Capitol in Lansing Thursday, demanding that state officials immediately shut down the aging Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac that scientists have warned is a “disaster just waiting to happen.”

Food & Water Watch said about 100 people took part in the rally and shouted slogans like ‘not one drop” before delivering a letter signed by more than 160 businesses urging Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette to act swiftly to to protect the Great Lakes by shutting down the pipeline.

Line 5 is a set of 62-year-old, twin oil and gas pipelines that run under the Straits of Mackinac. University of Michigan scientists warned in 2014 that the Straits are “the worst possible place” for a Great Lakes oil spill.

Earlier this month, Schuette and Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant acknowledged the Canadian-owned Enbridge Energy pipeline’s days are numbered and said it wouldn’t be allowed under today’s regulations, but also said there was no urgency to shut it down.

Related:

• Enbridge on Notice to Reinforce Pipelines to Avoid Great Lakes Catastrophe
• Coast Guard’s Alarming Warning on Great Lakes Oil Spill
• ‘Pinhole-Sized’ Pipeline Lake Heightens Great Lakes Fears
• Activists: Plug Straits of Mackinac Pipeline Before Catastrophe
• Task Force: Straits of Mackinac Pipeline Wouldn’t Be Allowed Today

The activists who gathered Thursday disagreed, arguing the Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s available fresh surface water, provide drinking water for more than 35 million people in the United States and Canada, and provide habitat for countless flora and fauna species.

“Line 5 poses an immediate threat to both the waters of the Great Lakes and the people who depend on them,” David Holtz of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter said in a statement. “The governor and attorney general need to use their authority to stop the flow of oil through Line 5 and work to keep oil out of the Great Lakes for good.”

The rally took place almost five years to the day of the July 25, 2010, Enbridge Line 6b break, the most catastrophic inland oil spill in U.S. history. The line ruptured and more than 1 million gallons of tar sands oil flowed into a Kalamazoo River tributary for 17 hours before the line was shut down. Enbridge spent $1.21 billion in cleanup costs, according to its 2014 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, making it the most expensive inland cleanup ever.

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• What do you think should happen here? Should Line 5 be shut down immediately?

Food & Water Watch’s Lynna Kaucheck said Enbridge has a poor environmental record, spilling almost 4 million gallons of hydrocarbon products around the country from 2005-2013, and that the defects in Line 5 have been well documented.

“Enbridge’s track record is shaky at best,” Kaucheck said, also in a statement. “A company that was responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the U.S. shouldn’t be trusted to continue to operate this aging infrastructure in one of the most vulnerable places in the Great Lakes for a spill, the risk is just too great.”