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U.S. delays decision on underwater tunnel for Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline

Sarnia’s mayor says his community has been left in “purgatory” by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers's announcement it will delay a decision on a proposed pipeline tunnel under Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac.

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Sarnia’s mayor says his community has been left in “purgatory” by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s announcement it will delay a decision on a proposed pipeline tunnel under Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac.

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The corps said recently a draft environmental impact statement it had planned to release in late 2023, in response to Enbridge’s plan to replace its Line 5 pipeline running on the lakebed with a tunnel, is now expected to be published in spring 2025, with a decision in early 2026.

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Line 5 carries oil and natural gas liquids from Western Canada and re-enters Canada at Sarnia after crossing Michigan.

It’s one of the pipelines supplying industry in Sarnia and other parts of eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest.

“It’s frustrating and disappointing,” Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said of the delay.

When Sarnia officials speak with oil and natural gas liquids-related industries considering investing locally, “security of supply is an issue,” he said.

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“We’re in a great period of uncertainty” in the economy and “this doesn’t help us,” Bradley said.

Sarnia is home to three of Ontario’s four oil refineries and community officials have been warning about the impact the state’s move to shut down the pipeline could have on thousands of Canadian jobs.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Scott Archer, business agency with Local 663 of the pipefitters union, of the delay. “But I have faith they’ll come through and make the right decision, because there’s so much at stake financially on (both) side(s) of the border.”

Archer said he believes the corps is “just under pressure” to come up with a decision it “can sell” to pipeline foes.

Completing the tunnel project will “make Line 5 safer” and provide “a pretty good shot in the arm for a lot of construction workers on the Michigan side,” he added.

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Line 5 “feeds so much industry and manufacturing” in Ontario, Quebec and several U.S. states, he said. “I don’t think people realize that Ontario would fall on its face without Line 5,” he said.

The Ontario government has said shutting down the pipeline would put more than 4,900 jobs at risk.

In November 2020, citing concerns about the risk of spills into the Great Lakes, spill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoked an easement that had let Line 5 run along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac since 1953. Enbridge challenged that order in U.S. federal court, while vowing to continue to operate Line 5.

Enbridge had reached a deal with Whitmer’s Republican predecessor to replace the existing crossing with a tunnel to protect the line’s twin pipes.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for evaluating a permit application required under U.S. law for construction of the proposed tunnel.

“While we are supportive of a thorough, comprehensive and carefully considered permitting process that ensures adequate opportunity for review and comment, we are disappointed with the extended timeline for a project of this scope,” Enbridge said in a statement.

The company said it applied to the corps in April 2020 and the recent delay “effectively pushes the start of construction to 2026.”

In 2021, Canada invoked a 1977 treaty guaranteeing uninterrupted movement of oil and natural gas liquids between the two countries. Enbridge and Michigan are currently before the courts over Line 5’s future.

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Ottawa’s actions in support for the pipeline followed efforts by Sarnia officials and others to raise awareness of the issue.

While that effort succeeded at the time, Bradley said, “Line 5 seems to be off the national dialogue between the two countries.”

But concern remains about the threat to the pipeline’s future and the jobs its supports, he said. This new delay leaves Sarnia, “sort of now in this purgatory.”

There was nothing about Line 5 in coverage U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa last week, said Bradley.

He’s concerned about the delay’s impact as the U.S. enters its political “silly season” ahead of its next presidential election. A change in government could leave Line 5 at risk, “because we’re counting on the (U.S.) federal government . . . to be the decider that would keep this project moving forward.”

pmorden@postmedia.com

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