Food and Water Watch to hold Sept. 24 press conference to call for preventing oil spill in Straits of Mackinac

At Bridge View Park in St. Ignace, near the north end of the Mackinac Bridge (at right, background) concerned citizens at the July 14, 2013, Oil and Water Don't Mix rally against the Enbridge Pipeline (note sign: "60-year-old Time Bomb") listen as speakers, including Bill McKibben, 350.org founder, talk about the dangers of Enbridge's Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. This Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, this same park will be the scene of a press conference/ protest to call attention once more to the dangers of an oil spill in the Straits. (Keweenaw Now file photo)*

ST. IGNACE, Mich. -- While Enbridge conducts an oil spill response drill in the Straits of Mackinac on Thursday, Sept. 24, Food and Water Watch -- a non-profit group that champions healthy food and clean water for all -- will hold a press conference to call attention to Enbridge’s shaky safety record. The group will unite with allies and concerned citizens near the Straits of Mackinac to call on Governor Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette to shut down Enbridge's Line 5 before the winter ice appears.

The press conference will take place at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, at Bridge View Park, Boulevard Drive, in St. Ignace.

Food and Water Watch warns that our state lawmakers need to be precautionary and not reactionary when it comes to protecting the Great Lakes.

During the Sept. 6, 2015, rally at the Mackinac Bridge near St. Ignace, protesters hold signs expressing concerns about Enbridge's Line 5 under the Straits. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)**

Line 5 is a 62-year-old oil and gas pipeline owned by Enbridge that runs under the Straits of Mackinac. According to a University of Michigan Study, the Straits are the "worst possible place" in the Great Lakes for a spill. Enbridge’s shaky track record includes one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history when roughly one million gallons of tar sands oil spilled near Kalamazoo in 2010. Of particular concern is that the U.S. Coast Guard testified before Congress this year and indicated that they wouldn’t be able to respond effectively to a spill in the Great Lakes. Further, Enbridge appears to have no plan for how to recover oil if a spill were to occur in the winter when the lakes are covered with ice.

Speakers at the event will be Lynna Kaucheck, Food and Water Watch; Aaron Payment, chair, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians; Phil Parr, local business representative.

Aaron Payment, chair, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, speaks at a Sept. 6, 2015, press conference during the rally against Enbridge's Line 5 in Mackinaw City. Several Native American leaders spoke to the media about their concern for the Great Lakes. Payment will also speak at the Sept. 24 press conference to be held at Bridge View Park, St. Ignace. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)***

Participants are welcome to hold signs.

Following Payment's talk, Mariah Urueta of Food and Water Watch speaks at the Sept. 6, 2015, press conference during the rally against Enbridge's Line 5. Urueta said she helped organize this event. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)**

Driving directions to park:

- Go to the US 2 exit off I-75

- Go west of 75 for a quarter mile

- Turn south at the moose statue at Boulevard Dr.

- Go all the way down towards the water. The park will be on the left. There is a big entrance sign.

Food and Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. They help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to their homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

Notes:

* See our July 22, 2013, article, "Videos, photos: 'Oil and Water Don't Mix' rally draws hundreds concerned about Great Lakes." 

** Watch for a story, coming soon, on the Sept. 6, 2015, protests at both the north and south ends of the Mackinac Bridge.

*** See video clips of Aaron Payment's talk about tribal opposition to Line 5 at a May 27, 2015, press conference on Mackinac Island in our June 17, 2015, article.

Groups concerned about pipeline under Straits to rally near Mackinac Bridge July 14

TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. -- Hundreds of citizens concerned about the risks a 60-year-old oil pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac poses to the Great Lakes will rally at Bridge View State Park at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 14. The  "Oil and Water Don't Mix Rally" will call attention to the aging pipeline and urge state officials to take action to fully protect the Great Lakes from a potential oil spill that would cause great harm.

The event will feature a series of speakers, including climate activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben and others, who will urge Gov. Rick Snyder to insist that federal authorities require Enbridge, Inc., of Calgary, Alberta -- the pipeline owner and operator -- to remove and replace the aging line with the safest, most protective pipe technology available. Local Traverse City chapter "TC 350" has joined with Michigan Land Use Institute and many other state and local groups to organize this rally.

Enbridge is responsible for the 2010 Kalamazoo River tar sands oil pipeline spill, the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. That cleanup is still underway three years and nearly 1 billion dollars after it began because submerged tar sands oil is proving to be far more difficult to clean up than conventional oil.

Rally-goers will also call for a permanent ban on sending tar sands oil through the Mackinac pipeline, or any other lines near the Great Lakes or their tributaries.

"There is no such thing as a perfect, completely leak-free pipeline," according to Beth Wallace of the National Wildlife Federation, who co-authored several reports on Enbridge’s pipeline problems. "A major leak at the heart of the Great Lakes would be a terrible thing for the environmental and lakeshore landowners. This very old pipeline is a disaster waiting to happen."*

Also onstage will be Jerry Dennis, a noted author who writes extensively about Great Lakes history and ecosystems, and representatives from other communities that have been impacted by Enbridge’s pipelines, including Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands and the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council.

Rally sponsors include the National Wildlife Federation, Michigan Environmental Council, Ann Arbor 350, Michigan Land Use Institute, FLOW, the Detroit and Michigan Coalitions Against Tar Sands, the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, the Northern and West Michigan Environmental Action Councils, and Food and Water Watch.

Music will be provided by several northern Michigan artists, including Seth Bernard and May Erlewine, Rachael Davis and Dominic John Davis. Rally-goers are invited to bring a picnic lunch and spend the afternoon enjoying one of Michigan’s most scenic and environmentally fragile spots.

How to get there

Make the drive to the event in your own car, ride with friends, or sign up for a rideshare to give or get a ride. A number of buses from various cities in the Midwest are also being organized.

Click here for a map showing the location of Bridge View State Park.

* The Rally was inspired by an October 2012 National Wildlife Federation report, "Sunken Hazard: Aging oil pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac an ever-present threat to the Great Lakes."

Visit http://oilandwaterdontmix.com/ for more information.