Page 10 - WEB

A6 U.S. NEWS
Friday 20 July 2018

Report: Lake oil spill in Michigan would cost nearly $2B

By ED WHITE
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Hundreds of
miles of Great Lakes shore-
line would be spoiled un-
der a worst-case scenario
oil spill in Michigan’s Straits
of Mackinac, scientists re-
ported Thursday.
The cost of a doomsday spill
could be as high as $1.8 bil-
lion, including $500 million
in cleanup and $678 mil-
lion in lost tourism revenue
in Wisconsin and Michigan,
experts said.
A team of scientists from
Michigan universities wrote
a 400-page draft report on
the risks of an extraordinary
spill from Enbridge Line 5, a
20-inch twin oil pipeline that
runs beneath the Straits of
Mackinac, which connects
lakes Michigan and Huron
at the peak of the Lower
Peninsula. A public hearing
will be held on Aug. 13 in
Harbor Springs.
The impact of a spill would FILE - In this July 19, 2002 file photo, the Mackinac Bridge that spans the Straits of Mackinac is shown from Mackinaw City, Mich.
be significant, but the sci- Associated Press
entists cautioned that their Lakes. Gov. Rick Snyder’s multiple layers of safety in Enbridge liable for damage ing the critical infrastruc-
analysis “extends to risks administration is expected mind,” spokesman Ryan or loss to public or private ture between Michigan’s
with low probabilities” of to determine the pipeline’s Duffy said. property, the scientists said. peninsulas that makes us
occurrence. long-term future by fall, just The report says a Line 5 Line 5 carries light crude one state.”q
Enbridge, a Canadian a few months before he rupture could release as oil and natural gas liquids
company, has been under leaves office. One option much as 58,000 barrels — used to make propane.
scrutiny since 2010, when would be putting the pipe- 2.4 million gallons — of oil In 2016, more than half of
one of its pipelines ruptured line in a tunnel under the and affect hundreds of Michigan’s propane needs
in southern Michigan, re- lakebed. miles of shoreline in Michi- were supplied by the pipe-
leasing 800,000 gallons of Enbridge insists that Line 5 gan, Wisconsin and Cana- line.
oil into the Kalamazoo River is safe. The company said da. Cleanup efforts could “Line 5 cannot remain
system. Critics say Line 5, a 24-hour control center be affected by the wind, in the Straits in its current
which has been transport- monitors the pipeline and weather and season. form,” said Keith Creagh,
ing oil between Wisconsin can shut it down in minutes. It is “possible that shoreline director of the Michigan
and Ontario, Canada, for “The scenarios presented in cleanup operations for a Department of Natural Re-
decades, should be shut this report are purely hypo- potential spill in the Straits sources. “This report high-
down, saying it’s old and thetical and the probabil- of Mackinac could contin- lights the need to continue
could be vulnerable to ity of the events actually ue for months to up to two developing a decommis-
leaks. occurring is extraordinarily years following the spill,” sioning strategy that pro-
No large oil spill has ever unlikely because Enbridge the report states. tects the Great Lakes while
occurred in the Great operates our pipelines with A 1953 easement makes at the same time maintain-