State environmental officials plan to reissue a key water quality permit for the Line 5 tunnel, according to a preliminary decision announced Tuesday afternoon.
Bridge Magazine reports that the permit will enable the Canadian Enbridge Energy Company to discharge millions of gallons of treated wastewater per day into Lake Michigan, if and when it builds it’s proposed tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac.
The permit was originally issued 2021, but has expired. When Enbridge rolled out the proposal in 2018, they hoped to complete the tunnel by 2024. Legal challenges brought by environmentalists have delayed the project, and also doubled the estimated cost from $500 million to $1 billion.
The discharge would be a mix of water used in the construction process, groundwater seeping into the construction site, collected rainwater, and water used for cooling equipment.
Enbridge wants to use the tunnel to replace its current pipeline on the floor of the Straits, which is more than 70 years old.
Environmentalists oppose the plan, and want the entire pipeline that carries crude oil from Western Canada to Southeast Michigan and Ontario shut down.
Read Bridge Magazine’s full article here.
