Canadian energy company Enbridge has secured another permit needed for its Line 5 tunnel project, moving the effort closer toward construction after another critical permit was struck down less than two weeks earlier.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on Wednesday that it had issued a permit for the project, authorizing the company to tunnel beneath the lake bed in the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet.
The tunnel would house a four-mile-long pipeline segment intended to replace the dual pipelines running along the lake bed amid ongoing concerns that the pipelines could rupture, spilling oil and natural gas liquids into the Great Lakes.
Tribal nations from throughout the Great Lakes region and environmental advocates have pushed to shut down the pipeline for many years, pointing to the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill from Enbridge’s Line 6B, and a series of anchor strikes that dented Line 5’s eastern and western segments as warning signs of the potential for a spill.
Enbridge has pointed to the tunnel project as a preventative measure against any future anchor strikes and oil spill concerns, though pipeline opponents argue that constructing the tunnel carries its own list of harms, including impacts to nearby wetlands and the destruction of several cultural sites and archaeological resources.
This is a breaking story and will be updated
