Not good enough.

Enbridge Energy’s promise to keep heavy crude out of the Straits of Mackinac doesn’t remove the threat to the Great Lakes, and it shouldn’t appease those charged with protecting them, either.

The company on Thursday signed a deal with state officials pledging that it would not use Line 5 to move heavy crude. The 62-year-old pipeline carries light petroleum and natural gas liquids under the straits, and the agreement cements that status.

It also provides for a 180-day notice should the company decide to change its mind.

Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, called it an “additional layer of protection.”

That’s an interesting way of putting it. Given the Canadian company’s history of environmental disasters, we fail to see how preserving the status quo is protecting anything.

We’re acutely aware of Enbridge’s poor oversight of its aging network of pipelines, one of which burst on July 26, 2010, near Marshall, spilling more than 1 million gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River.

And we can’t forget that it took the company 17 hours to shut down the pipeline. Nor should we.

Enbridge deserves credit for its local efforts to remedy the effects of that disaster five years ago, and we’re not of a mind to see the company punished in perpetuity for its mistakes, no matter how egregious.

et we see no reason to ignore its mistakes, either, and even running a pipeline under the Straits is a mistake of the highest order. If that wasn’t clear 62 years ago, it’s abundantly clear today.

A University of Michigan study commissioned in 2014 by the National Wildlife Federation found the Straits would be the “worst possible place” for a Great Lakes oil spill, contaminating waters and shoreline in both Lakes Michigan and Huron through the waterway’s often shifting currents.

Chris Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council, told the Detroit Free Press in July that “No amount of preparation would be adequate to prevent utter disaster if Line 5 fails.”

And that, many observers fear, is simply a matter of time.

In a separate announcement on Thursday, Gov. Rick Snyder announced the creation of a 15-member pipeline safety advisory board in the DEQ.

It’s a good move, although it comes more than three years after an NWF and U-M report highlighting the state’s lack of effective oversight of pipeline safety. That’s a remarkably slow response.

State leaders, including Attorney General Bill Schuette, are on already record stating that they can foresee a time when Enbridge would be forced to shut down Line 5. That time should be now.

Line 5 is a disaster waiting to happen. For once, we’d like to see this company forced to take steps to avoid further harm to our state’s natural resources.

– Battle Creek Enquirer