A 15,000-pound anchor “decoupled” from a barge doing maintenance work on a pair of oil pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac Wednesday, according to the company operating the pipeline.
On Friday, Enbridge said it was developing a plan to retrieve the anchor and would have it off the lakebed within days.
Both the state and Enbridge said the anchor posed no danger to the line, which was shut down temporarily in 2018 after being struck by another anchor and againlast year after a contractor damaged its support structure.
“There was no risk to the pipelines. The anchor was placed in between the dual pipelines in an area more than 500 feet from either pipeline per a pre-approved anchoring plan,” said company spokesperson Ryan Duffy.
Duffy said the barge carrying the anchor was operated by a contractor “conducting seasonal maintenance” on the lines “in accordance with work plans approved by EPA and the State.”
Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy spokesperson Hugh McDiarmid said the state was checking to see if that was true.
“Obviously it’s a concern when mechanical failures occur that have the potential to increase the risk to the line,” McDiarmid said.
“Our information right now is that this is not a significant risk to Line 5. … We’re working right now to determine whether all those laws were followed and all the stipulations of the agreements that Enbridge has entered into have been followed,” he continued.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered the line to be shut down in May, calling it a “ticking time bomb.” So far, the company has refused.
The environmental organization Oil and Water Don’t Mix said this week’s anchor failure “shows once again that there’s no safe way to operate oil pipelines in the Straits.”
Enbridge plans to replace Line 5, which lies on the bed of the Straits, with a tunnel under the water body.
“Enbridge is committed to safely maintaining and operating Line 5 as the Great Lakes Tunnel is built. The tunnel is the best long-term solution to safeguard the Great Lakes while keeping the energy flowing to Michigan, neighboring states, and Canada’s two largest provinces,” said Duffy, the company spokesperson.