HOUGHTON, MI-- At a meeting Monday, the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board recommended that Michigan Technological University lead a risk analysis of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline.
An alternative analysis for the dual pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac was completed this year, but the first risk analysis was halted three months ago due to a conflict of interest with a third-party contractor.
If the state agrees with the board’s recommendation, Tech would collaborate with other Michigan universities to analyze the environmental and economic impacts of a ‘worse-case scenario” spill or release.
Guy Meadows is the director of Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center. He says Michigan taxpayers funded three-fourths of the center for this very purpose. He says the university would be fulfilling its promise to address complex problems facing the Great Lakes and to make recommendations to decision makers based on a complete picture.
