LANSING — Line 5 — a set of pipelines that carry propane, oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Canada, through Michigan and across the Straits of Mackinac — is largely invisible.
The controversy it generates is nearly inescapable, heating up gubernatorial debates, filling space on signs along interstates, sparking lawsuits and editorials.
To their detractors, the pipelines are a singular threat to Michigan's identity as the Great Lakes State. To their supporters, they are the lifeline powering the Upper Peninsula.
It's likely neither side would be making such vigorous arguments if not for a 2010 disaster near Marshall, Michigan, when a different Enbridge pipeline burst and, undiscovered for hours, spilled approximately 1.2 million gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River.
The day of the spill — July 25, 2010, was "complete and total chaos," said Aaron Payment, who at the time was executive director of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians.
"At the time, the Battle Creek press had reported that the response was like 'Keystone Cops,' running around all confused and not knowing," he said. "You can add to that the anxiety of citizens not knowing what threats were represented by emissions."
Payment, now chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and president of the United Tribes of Michigan, is among the loudest voices calling for Line 5 to be shut down.
He and other tribal leaders, activists and politicians see scrutinizing Line 5 as an opportunity to do something that should have happened a decade ago in Marshall: prevent disaster.
"Line 6B proved that we can't wait for these major events to happen to require transparency and stricter oversight for operators," said Beth Wallace, National Wildlife Federation conservation partnerships manager. "We need to be aware as communities when this infrastructure is running through our backyards."
A ruptured pipe, an environmental awakening
Wallace went straight to her hometown of Athens when she heard the news about the Line 6B spill in July, 2010.
The pipeline had split, spilling crude oil into the Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River for a total of 38 miles, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Over 1,500 acres were contaminated, dead fish washed up on the shore and injured animals were slicked black with the sludge. Residents, smelling the gas, feared for their health.
From 2010: Leak spews oil into Kalamazoo River
Examples of man-made failures compounded.
In an accident report completed in 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board in part blamed the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for weak regulation of pipeline repair and its ineffective oversight of pipeline safety programs, control center procedures and public awareness.
It also blamed Enbridge for failing to find and repair pipeline cracks and adequately respond to the spill.
Although alarms indicated something was wrong on July 25, 2010, pipeline operators twice decided to continue pumping oil through the ruptured line and failed to stop the leak for 17 hours, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report said.
At the time of the spill, Wallace was working on the National Wildlife Federation's climate change team. She dedicated herself to understanding the impact Line 6B's rupture had on the environment.
Wallace also learned of troubling actions from Enbridge — for example, as residents told Congress in 2010, company officials were asking people who lived near the spill to sign away their rights to sue in exchange for air purifiers.
After about a year of studying the Kalamazoo River oil spill's environmental impacts, Wallace heard about another Enbridge pipeline: Line 5.
"This was really the first time we had heard about Line 5, so I went into a fact-finding mission to try to understand the integrity [of the pipeline], the age and the location..." she said. "I became increasingly concerned about the issue that line posed to our waterways."
Wallace coauthored "Sunken Hazards," the National Wildlife Foundation's groundbreaking 2012 report on Line 5 that raised alarm bells about the pair of aging oil pipelines traversing the Straits of Mackinac.
Before 2010, Lines 6B and 5 largely were "out of sight, out of mind."
No longer.
The current fervor over the safety, value and threat posed by Line 5 is a direct result of the 2010 spill, said Jeffrey Insko, an Oakland University associate professor who is writing a book about the incident and its impact.
It's a chance to reckon emotionally with a man-made disaster.
"I really do believe that the movement that has coalesced around Line 5 is a way of remembering or even kind of rectifying the extent to which the state kind of collectively shrugged its shoulders at what happened in Marshall in 2010 with Line 6B," he said.
Payment agreed. He said the Kalamazoo River oil spill was an awakening to the threat pipelines pose on the environment and the reason Michiganders know about Line 5.
Yet the circumstances near Marshall and the Straits of Mackinac are not the same, he said.
Because of where the pipeline split, the 2010 spill was contained to Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. A major spill in the straits would spread into Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, contaminating water and damaging ecosystems. The impact could harm shoreline communities by damaging drinking water sources and disrupting the tourism economy.
It also would destroy the whitefish population that is important to indigenous communities.
"There's no price that can be put on that," Payment said.
Enbridge: 'We've really been transformed'
The Marshall oil spill was "transformative" for Enbridge, too, spokesperson Ryan Duffy said.
"We made a lot of changes in that time, with an overall increased focus on proactive measures to maintain safe operations," he said. "We've really been transformed in a lot of ways to prevent a similar incident from ever happening in the future."
The company reportedly spent over $1 billion on cleaning the Marshall spill and a smaller 2010 spill in Indiana, plus $177 million in settlements and fines related to the Marshall spill, according to an EPA settlement report.
Duffy said the company overhauled its control center operations after the spill and increased inspections and incident response drills, especially where Line 5 crosses the Straits.
Enbridge released promotional material this year to memorialize the Marshall spill and show how its response — largely mandated by court orders and settlements with state and federal agencies — has improved the quality of the Kalamazoo River.
"We promised to make it right. We've kept that promise," Duffy said. "The river was reopened to the public in 2012, actually, and if you talk to people there, they'll tell you … it's clean and it's being used a lot more now for recreation."
More: The 2010 Enbridge oil spill reshaped the Kalamazoo River and provided a cautionary tale
Dan Macfarlane, Western Michigan University associate professor of environment and sustainability, kayaks the Kalamazoo River regularly. From a boat, it appears to be in good condition, he said, crediting Enbridge with following through on court orders and promises.
"You wouldn't know a spill had happened when you go on it," he said.
Unless you had a shovel and dug into the riverbank. Dig deep enough, and you'd still find oil, Macfarlane said. At a certain depth it becomes more destructive to dig up and clean the polluted soil than to let nature degrade it over time.
"It's impossible to completely remediate all of it," he said.
Spills are better to avoid, he said. The problems with Line 6B should have been fixed before a fissure opened in the pipeline.
"Companies like Enbridge do not upkeep them very well, largely because the regulations aren't there to make them do it," he said.
Duffy said Enbridge officials are happy Michiganders like Macfarlane have taken an interest in pipeline safety. He argued the company has done a good job keeping Line 5 safe, proven by its 67-year life with no major spills.
Line 5 a major reason Nessel ran for AG
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is not convinced.
She cited the myriad of deficiencies that contributed to the 2010 spill — like failures to stop the release for 17 hours despite the spill triggering numerous alarms — as reasons to be hawkish about the safety of Line 5.
"The question you have to ask is, 'Did Enbridge learn from that?'" Nessel said. "Have they changed substantially how they operated in 2010 for Line 6B to how they're operating in 2020 for Line 5?
"I think the conclusion we can draw from everything we know in the last 10 years is they have not learned anything."
She cited the revelation reported by the Detroit News on Thursday that an Enbridge-contracted vessel likely damaged a pipeline support this summer, and the ongoing strife between Enbridge and the state Department of Natural Resources over signing a financial liability agreement in case of a spill in the Straits of Mackinac.
The Marshall oil spill and future of Line 5 were among the biggest reasons Nessel, a Democrat, ran for office in 2018.
Line 5's future is entangled in lawsuits: Enbridge filed one in the Court of Claims seeking to uphold the constitutionality of a 2018 law allowing it to build a tunnel for the pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac. Nessel filed another in Ingham County Circuit Court arguing the company is not upholding its end of its 1953 easement with the state that allows it to operate Line 5.
Although the cases are pending and judges have handed wins to both sides, Nessel remains confident she can decommission the pipelines through the straits.
"I think it’s important to review everything that happened in 2010 and to apply those lessons to today," she said. "Because the best thing we can do is to review what happened, remember what happened and make sure that it never happens again."
Looking forward, Line 5 dispute centers on climate change
The debate over Line 5's future is not just about spills, Macfarlane said. Building a tunnel through the Straits means committing to fossil fuels knowing they cause climate change.
"Building that tunnel ensures we're going to have oil under the Straits of Mackinac," he said. "That's no victory. If they're going to spend that money to build it, of course they're going to keep using it."
Enbridge is investing in renewable energy, Duffy countered, but expects liquid fuels to remain crucial in the coming decades.
"Whatever the energy mix may be going forward, as long as there is some component of it that is liquids, it will be important to transport that safely," he said. "That's what the tunnel will do — make sure it's completely protected and safe through the straits."
Macfarlane, who studies the way humans have shaped the environment throughout history, said it's easier to forgive the use of fossil fuels decades ago, before scientists had a clear understanding of the role they play in climate change.
Future historians will be less forgiving, he predicted.
"I think a century ago we were ignorant about a lot of what we were doing," he said. "Now, a lot of times we have knowledge of what we're doing but we're still failing to do the right thing."
Contact Carol Thompson at ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.
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10 years later, Kalamazoo River oil spill casts a shadow on debate over Enbridge's Line 5 - Lansing State Journal
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