Off of US-2, a small group of Enbridge Energy employees cheered Nov. 10 at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebrated the new location of Enbridge’s maritime monitoring operations in St. Ignace.
Enbridge officials said the monitoring efforts aren’t new, but the $50 million facility is a more permanent base. It’s staffed around the clock by a team of seven, who watch and communicate with all passing ships to make sure they don’t anchor near the submerged Line 5.
Mike Davanzo is a maritime operations specialist with Enbridge. He said the monitoring efforts were developed in response to the 2018 anchor strike - that dented the pipeline and released 600 gallons of insulation fluid into the Straits.
“We took this initiative with a couple of things: we put those electronic buoys so people know exactly where the pipeline is, when they're crossing it,” Davanzo said. “We call them on the radio, tell them where the pipeline is, tell them that there's no anchoring in that zone. And then we watch and make sure their anchors are secured.”
Davanzo said if the monitoring team spots an issue, they can make a call to depressurize the line.
“I had the opportunity to sail in all waterways in the US, and then I've sailed overseas,” said Davanzo, a former captain with the US Coast Guard. “Nowhere today, is there any one piece of pipeline that has this much protection over it. This is a pretty forward and aggressive approach.”
Sean McBrearty is with Oil and Water Don’t Mix. He said the anchor-monitoring efforts are just a “dog and pony show” in the face of an aging pipeline..
“It’s a 70-year-old pipeline that is improperly supported on the bottom of the Straits, it doesn’t take an anchor to cause a leak,” McBrearty said.
The facility has been in operation since September. Davanzo said the facility is meant to protect the pipeline until Enbridge’s proposed tunnel is approved and constructed.
