The Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the world’s supply of freshwater – an oil spill can contaminate the drinking water source for 40 million people in the United States and Canada: [link removed]

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Dear Friend,

An oil pipeline is putting the largest surface freshwater system in the world at risk. For more than seven decades, the Line 5 oil pipeline has been carrying oil and gas from western Canada to eastern Canada by taking a shortcut through the Great Lakes.

The outdated pipeline has spilled at least 33 times over its lifespan, releasing at least 1.1 million gallons of oil into the environment. Now, Canadian pipeline company Enbridge wants to dig a tunnel below the lakebed to lock in another century of fossil fuel profits.

At the direction of President Trump, the Army Corps of Engineers is likely to fast-track federal permits for the pipeline tunnel replacement -- but the State of Michigan can still stop its construction. We need your help to urge Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer to reject this permit and protect our Great Lakes! [link removed]

Enbridge’s tunnel project threatens an oil disaster in the middle of the Great Lakes. Running a hazardous liquids pipeline through a confined underground tunnel has never been attempted anywhere else in the world - and for good reason. Expert geologists and engineers have warned that the design could lead to an explosion under the Straits of Mackinac, considered the worst spot in the Great Lakes for an oil spill because of the location and strength of the currents. A spill in the Straits would spread across more than 700 miles of Lake Michigan and Huron shoreline, contaminating the source of drinking water for around 40 million people.

Earthjustice and the Native American Rights Fund represent the Bay Mills Indian Community, a Tribal Nation located in Michigan’s upper peninsula, in fighting to stop the tunnel project and to decommission Line 5. The Straits of Mackinac are a treaty-protected sacred site of creation for Bay Mills and for Anishinaabe people who have lived along the Great Lakes since time immemorial. A spill there would have unthinkable consequences for Tribal Nations – and for all of us.

In his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order declaring an “Energy Emergency,” directing federal agencies to skip important reviews and to fast-track approvals for major fossil fuel infrastructure projects like the Line 5 oil tunnel.

Even though the federal government is likely to rubber-stamp the tunnel project, we can urge the state to step in. Tell Gov. Whitmer to protect the Great Lakes and reject the Line 5 tunnel project. [link removed]


Sincerely,
Debbie Chizewer
Managing Attorney, Midwest Office

TAKE ACTION: [link removed]

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