Enbridge 5 Pipeline

The podcast episode discusses the threat posed by Enbridge Pipeline 5 to the Great Lakes, which provide a significant portion of the United States' fresh water. The pipeline, which transports crude oil, has a history of leaks and is particularly problematic in the four miles under the Straits of Mackinac. Native Americans and tribal nations have taken legal action and demanded the immediate closure of the pipeline. The response from state and federal officials is to build a tunnel around the pipeline as an extra safety measure. However, the potential for a rupture, as seen in a previous Enbridge pipeline incident, could have severe environmental consequences. The protection of the Great Lakes and clean water source is crucial for future generations. Hello and welcome. I am Paige. I will be podcasting this episode with you. Huge shout out to my son, Chase, for the music intro. He is only nine years old, so I want to give Chase a huge shout out to my Beats creator. Thanks, buddy. So jumping right in, this is about Enbridge Pipeline 5, and I have a question for you. Where does your water come from? Not many of us think, when we turn on the sink or buy a bottled water, where the water we drink comes from. Well, if you live in the United States, there is a 90% chance that water came from the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes make up one-fifth of the world's fresh water source, and nine-tenths of the United States' fresh water source. For us living in the Midwest, many of us are very aware of the importance of the Great Lakes and feel a sense from within to preserve it at all costs. What many don't know about the Great Lakes is the threat that is upon them currently right beneath the surface. A crude oil pipeline called Pipeline 5, owned and operated by a Canadian company called Enbridge, is just that threat. Pipeline 5 is 645 miles long. It begins in Superior, Wisconsin, then travels along highways and farmland, next alongside small lakes, creeks, residential homes through Wisconsin and Michigan. Again, it goes through small lakes and streams, underneath the Straits of the Mackinac, then it travels through parts of Michigan, farther through it finally reaches to Canada. Pipeline 5 supplies 65% of propane to the UP, also known as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and 55% to Michigan in general, as well as oil to Pennsylvania. Much of that oil is going to an oil refinement in Detroit, Michigan, as well as Toledo. The pipeline transports millions of gallons of crude oil to Canada a day, and since the pipeline was first built in 1953, it has leaked 33 times. That is about 1.1 million gallons of crude oil spilled in Lake Michigan. If you do the math, as I'm thinking here, 1953 it opened, so it's leaking literally every other year, if you do the math, this is just outrageous to me. Besides that, the most problematic area for the pipeline and biggest threat to the environment is the four miles of pipe exposed under the Straits of Mackinac. In 2008, a tugboat anchor struck the pipeline, damaging it in multiple locations. Enbridge placed protective covers on the damaged pipeline locations, but they didn't hold up, and most of them wore down to the point that there's just exposed metal and more damaged pipeline being exposed. In 2020, Pipeline 5 shut down temporarily due to this significant amount of damage, and Enbridge totally failed to inform any state officials about this shutdown. The Native Americans see the lake as a life source. Water is life, and the Turtle Island heart is the Mackinac Strait area and the lakes surrounding it. The First Nations, along with 60 other tribal nations around the Midwest and into Canada, have acted against the operation of the pipeline. Along with protesting and bringing awareness to this issue, they have taken legal action and demanded on a state level that the closure of Pipeline 5 immediately happens. The state and federal response to these demands and concerns is to just make an extra layer of safety through the making of the tunnel around the pipeline that will house an enclosement and a replacement section of Pipeline 5 by burying deep around the Straits of Mackinac. This $500 million private investment project is set to begin in 2026, if federal permits allow it. Enbridge openly admits on their website that this was their call to answer due to concerns of the pipeline breaking. And the pipeline actually rupturing is a very realistic concern. In July 2010, Pipeline 6B, owned and operated by Enbridge, did just that, and the world saw just how horrible the environmental impact could be if another larger pipeline ruptured. The people of Marshall, Michigan and the Kalamazoo River are still trying to recover to this day from that event. If Pipeline 5 ruptures, oceanographers predict the results would negatively impact thousands of miles of shoreline, animals, plants and human-like. Without clean water source intake for what it is, clean, we have none. Like the Native Americans say, water is life and sacred to all life, and those living near or on the Great Lakes feel and deeply understand this. The next three years will determine the next 100 years, and the protection of our Great Lakes and clean water source, what we do from here will redefine that simple question I asked before, where does your water come from?