Do you remember the Kalamazoo River oil spill disaster?
Over sixteen years ago, a pipeline owned by the Canadian corporation Enbridge catastrophically failed near Marshall, Michigan. It spilled over one million gallons of thick tar sands oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. The surging oil upended lives and relocated families. Noxious odors made people and animals sick. Well over 1,000 acres of river, wetlands, and floodplain habitats were degraded. Fishing, hunting, and recreational uses were curtailed for years.
Enbridge got the bill for the cleanup, some fines, and a damning report from the EPA and the NTSB.
Enbridge also got a shady, last-minute deal with the outgoing Snyder administration to drill an unprecedented four-mile-long tunnel for its Line 5 pipelines through the heart of the Great Lakes at the Straits of Mackinac.
People asked: How could we possibly trust Enbridge with the Great Lakes — our most precious natural, economic, and cultural gift? And why would we risk everything for a pipeline that primarily delivers oil and gas to Canada?
Sixteen years after the Kalamazoo disaster, and eight years after the smoke and fog of the false tunnel deal, people are still asking — and fighting.
With your support of Flow, you’ve been powering the Line 5 fight. And I’m writing today to tell you that we’re now closer than ever to getting oil out of the Great Lakes. Here’s how:
Earlier this year, Flow and a coalition of Tribes and environmental groups mounted a fierce legal challenge to the Line 5 tunnel permit approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). We argued that the state agency must holistically consider the public trust and environmental impacts, as well as feasible alternatives. The MPSC failed to do so.
On July 31, in a unanimous decision by the Michigan Supreme Court, we won the FLOW v. MPSC case. The permit for the Line 5 tunnel was thrown out and sent back for a comprehensive review.
Because you supported Flow, together we ensured that the tunnel cannot be approved without a careful, thorough analysis. We affirmed the people’s public trust rights to access, enjoy, and be sustained by our publicly held waters and bottomlands. And we set the legal precedent that state permitting decisions must abide by the public trust doctrine and the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA).
In fact, in light of the FLOW v. MPSC and related Tribal case decisions, in early September Governor Whitmer ordered a review of the tunnel permits approved by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) — effectively pausing the project indefinitely while the State of Michigan continues to fight in court for its right to shut down the existing Line 5 pipelines sitting on (and in some places, suspended precariously above) the lakebed. I cannot overstate the importance of this victory. But our work is far from over, and I need your help to continue the fight.
The power of our Michigan Supreme Court win is already having ripple effects.
In a separate case involving factory farm permits, Flow sued EGLE for failing to prevent harm to our waters. In September, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the Court of Appeals to reconsider FLOW v. EGLE and apply the higher environmental and public trust standard set by FLOW v. MPSC.
Our victory in FLOW v. MPSC opens a new permit proceeding, and we’ll need experts, attorneys, and advocates to ensure the MPSC carries out the Court’s orders. Flow is also one of the organizations challenging the EGLE permits alongside the Tribes. And Flow will be there to support challenges to the federal permit, as well as the State of Michigan’s right and duty to revoke the Line 5 easement.
Sixteen years ago, we learned a hard lesson about trusting Enbridge with Michigan’s waters. This year, we learned that with enough persistence, experience, passion, strategy, and support from friends like you, we can win.
We’re closer than ever to getting oil out of the Great Lakes, but “closer” isn’t “done.” The MPSC proceeding, the EGLE permit review, the federal challenge — each one needs Flow in the room and at the table, making the case and defending your public trust rights. Your gift today keeps us there.
Please give generously before the year ends. Help us get oil out of the Great Lakes, and help us ensure the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are healthy, public, and protected — now and for generations to come.
