"We greatly appreciate the meaningful input received
throughout scoping and will use this information to shape
studies and continuing consultations throughout development of
our draft environmental impact statement," said Detroit District
Commander Lieutenant Colonel Brett Boyle in a statement.
(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by
Leslie Adler, Cynthia Osterman and Richard Chang)
(Adds details from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
By Nia Williams
March 23 (Reuters) - Canada's Enbridge Inc said
on Thursday it was "disappointed" by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers' decision to extend the federal permitting process for
the company's proposed Great Lakes Tunnel that would rehouse its
Line 5 oil pipeline underneath the Straits of Mackinac.
Calgary-based Enbridge said the move will delay its plan to
replace a section of the existing Line 5 pipeline, which runs
underwater for four miles (6.4 km) between Lakes Michigan and
Huron, and push back the start of construction until 2026.
"While we are supportive of a thorough, comprehensive and
carefully considered permitting process that ensures adequate
opportunity for review and comment, we are disappointed with the
extended timeline for a project of this scope," Enbridge
spokesman Ryan Duffy said in a statement.
Enbridge submitted an application to build the $750 million
tunnel in 2020 to address concerns Line 5 could leak into the
Great Lakes. The 70-year-old pipeline carries 540,000 barrels
per day from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, and is at
the center of a long-running legal dispute between Enbridge and
the State of Michigan, which says it should be shut down.
The Detroit District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE) is responsible for evaluating Enbridge's permit
application and received more than 17,000 public comments during
a scoping period that ended in October 2022, the USACE said in a
statement.
The regulator had originally planned to publish a draft
environmental impact statement on the Line 5 tunnel project in
late 2023, but has pushed that back to spring 2025.
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