Karen Alholm, member, Marquette County Board of Commissioners

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a resolution in support of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 with the addition of two amendments.

Commissioner Bill Nordeen was absent from the meeting.

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline carries natural gas liquids and light crude oil throughout much of Michigan, including beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

The original resolution stated that Enbridge proposed to invest $500 million into making the pipeline safer by placing it in a tunnel with 1-foot-thick concrete walls 100 feet underground to reduce the chance of any leaks in the straits area.

The first amendment to the resolution, which was unanimously passed, came from Commissioner Steve Adamini and added language stating that the board will support Enbridge if it “hosts a performance bond for cleanup expenses in the event of a failure prior to the tunnel being completed in the amount of $2 billion.”

The second amendment, also unanimously approved, came from Commissioner Karen Alholm and removed the final clause of the resolution which states that the county urges the state of Michigan to work with Enbridge on the tunnel replacement project “as quickly as possible and not disrupt Line 5 service before the tunnel can be completed.”

“I think that’s asking for a commitment based on unknown facts and asking to read into the future, so I would like to see that phrase deleted from the resolution,” Alholm said.

With the amendments, the board was in support of the resolution because of Line 5’s impact on Upper Peninsula citizens.

Commissioner Joe Derocha noted that the board has to look at how the halt of Line 5 operations would affect its constituents.

“We all want clean, safe water, we all want to protect the environment, but we have to be reasonable in our requests and that’s why I’m supporting this,” Derocha said. “The majority of my district (has) heavily relied on propane and we lived through the excessive propane rates three years ago at $6 to $8 per gallon. Many of the seniors in my district had to make choices between eating and keeping the heat on. That’s a very difficult place to be in. If there’s a way to minimize environmental risk and and not have exorbitant rates put on the end user, I’ll always be supportive of that.”

Chairman Gerald Corkin noted that a number of counties in the Upper Peninsula had already approved the resolution.

Marquette resident Patrick Egan spoke during public comment regarding the board’s consideration to support the tunnel replacement project.

He suggested the board table the resolution to ask Enbridge what exactly is traveling through the pipeline. He also suggested that if the board must vote on the resolution during the meeting that it considers adding an amendment to support the concept of eminent domain, which is the power of the state and national government to take private property for public use. Egan stated private land has already been taken for the expansion of the pipeline and that this would continue with the tunnel replacement project.

“I really think you need to understand the risk that you’re putting (us in) if you support this tunnel pipeline,” Egan said.

Trinity Carey can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is tcarey@miningjournal.net.