Group challenges permit for oil pipeline in forest

By John Flesher AP Environmental Writer TRAVERSE CITY (AP) - A new lawsuit accuses a federal agency of breaking the law when it granted a new permit for an underground oil pipeline in a Michigan national forest without conducting an environmental analysis. The Sierra Club's lawsuit, filed last Wednesday, targets Enbridge Energy Partners LP's Line 5, which carries crude oil and other fuels between North Dakota and Sarnia, Ontario. It has drawn scrutiny from environmentalists because one segment runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the scenic waterway connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan. The suit focuses on another pipeline section that goes through part of the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Oscoda County, in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. A U.S. Forest Service special-use permit for that section expired in 2012. The forest service issued another permit last month, even though it hadn't prepared an environmental analysis. The National Environmental Policy Act requires U.S. agencies in most cases to perform one of two types of investigations to determine how an important action will affect the environment. Agencies can grant an exemption under some circumstances, as was done for the Enbridge pipeline. That decision, the lawsuit contends, wasn't justified even though the line was in place before the law took effect in 1970. It says Line 5 has never undergone a federal analysis since it began operating in 1953. "It is indefensible for the federal government to say that no environmental analysis is needed for a pipeline carrying a half-million barrels of oil a day across the Great Lakes, through a national forest and under numerous sensitive areas," said Anne Woiwode, conservation director for the Sierra Club's Michigan chapter. Huron-Manistee spokesman Ken Arbogast referred a request for comment to the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit, which did not immediately return a call. "We became aware this morning of the lawsuit filed against the National Forest Service and are currently reviewing it," Enbridge spokesman Jason Manshum said. "We will not comment further on pending litigation." The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Bay City. It asks that the permit be revoked until a proper environmental study can be done. "We are not asking the pipeline be shut down until that happens," said Marvin Roberson, a Sierra Club forest policy specialist. Published: Mon, Jan 19, 2015