Enbridge determined to build Line 5 tunnel amid calls to shut down the Canada-U.S. pipeline

As Calgary-based Enbridge waits for key approvals to start building a tunnel that would house a segment of Line 5, Anishnaabe and environmental groups in the U.S. continue to ask for the complete closure of the pipeline.

Built more than 70 years ago, Line 5 carries 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids daily across Wisconsin and Michigan to refineries in Sarnia, Ont. 

The tunnel would house a replacement segment of the existing Line 5 pipeline that crosses the bottom of the straits connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, known as the Straits of Mackinac.

The project – and the pipeline in general – raise a great deal of concern among Michigan's Tribal Nations and environmental advocates.

As an area where two bodies of water meet, the Straits of Mackinac have been described by researchers as the 'worst possible place' for oil to spill in the Great Lakes.

In 2018, a ship's anchor struck and damaged the pipeline, although Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy says it "did not cause Line 5 to fail" and "there was no release of the product." 

He adds that deactivating the section of Line 5 that currently sits in the waters of the Straits of Mackinac and locating a replacement section inside the confines of a tunnel deep under the lakebed would "make what has always been a safe pipeline even safer." 

Still, some Indigenous groups in the region are calling for the complete closure of the pipeline.

Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, says she sometimes has nightmares about getting a phone call from the state of Michigan informing her Line 5 has ruptured. 

"One of my greatest fears is that I'm going to get that phone call one day and then I'm going to have to go tell my people and my family and my uncles and my nephews and my cousins that they cannot go fish or hunt or gather anymore because the water is contaminated," she said. 

The tunnel project is an hour's drive south of Mackinaw, but Line 5 does cross rivers in the community's territory, says Gravelle. 

Some of the residents of the Pine Creek Indian Reservation near Michigan's capital also believe the risk of the pipeline spilling is too high.

"It would be devastating for the water, the land, and us… And it's not just us Tribal Nations that will be impacted, but everybody," said Douglas Taylor, an elder with Pine Creek. "It would be an international incident." 

"That a private Canadian business built a pipeline in the Great Lakes threatening us and our environment really bothers me," added Nat Spurr, another member of the Pine Creek community.