LANSING (WKZO) — The Attorney General and the Director of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality want Enbridge to immediately stop pumping heavy Canadian crude through the 5A pipeline that travels along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, fearing for the safety of the water in the Great Lakes.
The Enbridge spill into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River was very much on the minds of the Task Force as it did its work, according to A.G. Spokesperson Andrea Bitely. In fact the first page of the report is dedicated to a recounting of that spill and the dramatic and devastating effects on those waterways.
The Michigan Petroleum Pipeline Task Force, headed by Bill Schuette and Dan Wyant has issued a list of demands including full insurance coverage liability, and an assessment of options for the pipeline.
The report also requires Enbridge to disclose coverage pipeline safety reports and would establish a public advisory board on pipeline safety.
Schuette calls the requirements “tough but fair” saying that if anyone proposed construction of the pipeline today they would be turned down, suggesting also that line 5A may have a limited future, no matter what it carries.
The Task Force has also come up with eight recommendations for monitoring and spill response for all of the other pipelines that carry hazardous chemicals and materials through Michigan.
1.Coordinate mapping of existing pipelines among state agencies.
2.Ensure that state agencies collaborate on emergency planning and spill response.
3.Ensure coordinated emergency response training exercises and drills.
4.Ensure regular state consultation with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on hazardous liquid (including petroleum) pipelines.
5.Consider legislation requiring state review and approval of oil spill response plans, improved spill reporting, and more robust civil fines.
6.Evaluate whether to establish a Hazardous Liquids Pipeline Safety Program in Michigan.
7.Consider legislation or rulemaking to improve siting process for new petroleum pipelines.
8.Create a permanent Petroleum Pipeline Information website.The Task Force is only in a position to recommend the changes.
The Statewide Recommendations will require the action of the Governor, relevant state agencies, and the Michigan Legislature.
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the pipeline spill on the Kalamazoo River, it’s a good bet that had these steps been in place before the pipeline rupture near Marshall, that it might have been a completely different story.
