Line 5 opponents challenge state environmental department permits, calling them ‘legally deficient’

Four Tribal Nations and several environmental groups filed challenges seeking to overturn permits Michigan's environmental department issued in July for a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to house a replacement segment of Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline.

The filings follow Governor Gretchen Whitmer's move to have the state reexamine those permits after the Michigan Supreme Court found regulators had failed to consider environmental impacts when they approved a related permit for the project. Challengers argue the tunnel construction would permanently destroy tribal burial sites and cultural resources in the Straits, with no way to mitigate the damage.

Enbridge, through a spokesperson, pointed back to an earlier statement asserting the company already has an agreement with the state to build the tunnel and blaming delays on litigation and political intervention. The tunnel project followed a 2018 anchor strike that dented the existing pipeline in three places.

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